America Needs Leaders; So, What Does Real Leadership Looks Like

First we have to reassess what we think a leader is. by Herman Cain: On the radio, I talked about some of the leadership deficiencies we see in the Obama White House. I talked about a management structure impossible for even the most competent executive – which Barack Obama clearly is not – to keep a handle on.

I talked further about the necessity of effective leaders surrounding themselves with quality people. I once heard a very effective CEO say one of the things that made him successful is that he is never the smartest person in the room – meaning he surrounds himself with people who are experts at what they do and know exactly how to get things done. From Kathleen Sebelius to Eric Shinseki to Susan Rice to Eric Holder to John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, we can see that Obama has surrounded himself with people who would follow the political program laid out by the White House, but really had no ability to effectively lead organizations (no matter how well you all may know some of their names).

This is an indictment of Obama as a leader and of the administration as a whole, but it also speaks to the culture of Washington and of the nation’s political class that none of this is really seen as a serious matter.

The president is both a governing figure and a political figure. We get that. And the president has to simultaneously govern the nation in service to the people while watching out for his own political standing. The Constitution designed the government to work in that way.

But the idea was that the president’s political fortunes would be tied to his actual performance in service to the people. The point of regular elections was to give the people the chance to make a change if the president a) failed to faithfully execute the duties of his office or enforce the laws; or b) pursued foolhardy policies that made the nation less prosperous and less secure.

When you look at the type of team Obama put together, and you consider his own lack of any leadership experience whatsoever, it should come as no surprise that he has failed at both A and B. And yet he has to be viewed as a political success, since he won election and re-election, and because he has managed to largely succeed at enacting his agenda.

The problem is that the political class – and this includes the mainstream media – has more respect for a president who wins elections and successfully pushes his agenda than they do for a president who faithfully executes his duties, protects the Constitution and gets positive results.

Even when Obama blatantly lies – you can keep your health care plan; Benghazi was caused by a YouTube video, there is not even a smidgen of corruption at the IRS; I’m going to close Gitmo; I heard about it on the news – the political class is more interested in how cleverly he tells the lie than in the mere fact that he is deceiving the American people.

In other words, in today’s America, we respect political shrewdness more than we respect faithfulness of duty and effectiveness in leadership. That is probably why Hillary Clinton is taken seriously as a candidate. She is viewed as a shrewd politician, and when it is pointed out that she has no real accomplishments on her record, the storyline is usually that those making this claim are not doing so with sufficient political shrewdness!

How is it working out to keep electing shrewd politicians who can’t lead, can’t manage, can’t govern and can’t be straight with the American people? We can’t sustain economic growth. We can’t control spending. We can’t run the VA. We can’t rein in the IRS. We can’t stop messing up people’s health insurance. We can’t fix the tax code. We can’t stop piling up debt. We can’t restructure entitlement programs. We can’t do anything about Russian aggression or Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

But we can analyze those red/blue maps!

If we are ever going to solve any of this, we need to the change the way we – as a nation – view the qualities we want in leadership. Solving problems requires difficult choices, and they can only be made by leaders who are willing to level with the American people about what needs to be done. Sometimes that starts with admitting your own mistakes. But ultimately it requires a good leader to pick the right people and focus on the right problems.

This president hasn’t done any of that, and yet he has been given the political rewards he has sought. Since the political rewards were what he wanted all along, he has no incentive to change and he will not. I pray we learn from this as a nation before we elect another president who behaves in the same way, and this starts with a reassessment of what really makes a good leader.

Not what we've been used Real Leadership lately - What Does Real Leadership Looks Like?

If we’re going to do a better job of identifying leaders, we need to have some idea of what real leadership looks like. It’s easy to say what it doesn’t look like – the Obama Administration – but how do we know it when we see it?

You can’t break down every principle of leadership into a couple of simple acronyms, but as a basic starting point, I suggest two frameworks. One is W.A.R., which stands for: Working on the right problems; Asking the right questions; and Removing barriers to success. The other is R.R.R, which stands for Restructure, Replace, Rebuild.

These are really principles for how you solve problems, and they are a good measure of a leader’s mettle because any serious leader should be talking in these terms. I’m not saying they need to use my exact language or these acronyms, but they need to communicate to the people that they understand what the real problems are, and that they have some understanding of how to address them.

And of course, serious leaders approach problems in a serious way, and not just in a kick-the-can-down-the-road sort of way, which is why they should be looking at real, tangible actions like restructuring, replacing and rebuilding.

Let’s apply this to some real situations that any incoming leaders will have to address. We can start with the problems in the VA hospital system:
Working on the Right Problem: Bonuses based on "wait times"?
Ask the Right Questions: Six years in charge and didn't know?
Remove Barriers to Success: Culture of delays and deceptionThat is oversimplified, of course, but it’s designed to show you how leaders need to focus in on the right targets and choose the actions that will offer the most leverage to get to a solution.

You can apply the same thing to ObamaCare, which we might as well call the Unaffordable Care Act:
Working on the Right Problem: It’s making health care unaffordable!
Asking the Right Questions: Affordable? No! Cover everybody? No! Could we keep our doctors? No!
Remove Barriers to Success: Fix it or Nix it? It’s obvious. Repeal and Replace!Now how about the targeting of Obama’s political opponents by the IRS?Working on the Right Problem: Harassing conservatives and retro-fitting rules!
Asking the Right Questions: Where is Lois Lerner? Why won't she talk? What else are they hiding?
Removing Barriers to Success: REPLACE THE TAX CODE!Now let’s look at how the other set of principles works. R.R.R. means you understand the approach that is necessary to deal with each situation that presents itself. Some things can be fixed. Some things require you to start from scratch. Some things can be rebuilt but it is a very involved process. I would categorize them as follows:Restructure (Social Security, Medicare, Regulatory Environment, The VA)

Replace (Tax Code, ObamaCare, Harry Reid, Democrat control of Senate and WH!)

Rebuild (Economy, Military, Pride in USA!)I love the quote I heard recently from Mark A. Smith II, who heads the College Republicans at Morehouse College. Mark said, “America is a place that defeats nightmares, and restores dreams . . . the American dream.”

America has some nightmares in its history. But we have achieved far more dreams. The last six years of America's history may well be described as a period of scandals and a crisis of leadership, including the IRS, EPA, DOJ, NSA, NLRB, ObamaCare, Benghazigate, the VA . . . and as a result, we're in a national nightmare, looking for leadership!

But we should believe we can win. Remember the words of Maya Angelou, who passed away just last week: "We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."

What Americans need to do is stay informed, stay involved and stay inspired. And in our search for real leadership, we need to understand what it looks like. These are some good ideas to start with.

As I said at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans this past weekend, I don’t know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future. And He is the One I trust!

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