The Importance Of Political Leadership

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Political leadership has been swung into the forefront of the minds people across the world recently. The American election, in particular, has caught the interest of many with two highly criticized candidates: Donald Trump, the loudmouth business man turned presidential candidate, and Hilary Clinton, the secretive veteran politician that cannot seem to say anything right. Both have had their leadership ability called into question. I have some strong opinions about political leadership. I first gained an interest in this type of leadership during the 2008 Democratic primary, which I followed quite closely with my family. In that race and many that have followed I have noted a common theme to how leadership is judged. Many people believe that …show more content…

They use this lack of alignment with their morals as the sole reason that people are poor leaders. I disagree with that; morals are too subjective and do not take into account their leadership skills. Using the morality logic, both Norbert Hofer and Alexander Van der Bellen are poor leaders for Austria. Some people morally disagree with Hofer 's views and ideas about refugees and Islam, while others morally disagree with Van der Bellen 's talk of a 'United States of Europe ' and say he hates Austria. Morality does not affect the effectiveness of a leader, you may not want said leader in charge of your country, but that does not mean they are a bad leader. To determine whether or not someone is an ineffective leader, one must look at their actual qualities. I have focused on two particular qualities that I believe define effective leadership: authenticity and good …show more content…

Effective business leaders, for example, need to be decisive with their decisions and consistent and assertive when negotiating; they need to be able to be transparent about their business practices and be humble about their position. Sports coaches must decisive with split second decisions about plays and be able to empathize with their players so that they do not run their team into the ground. In both the examples I just gave, their morality does not affect their leadership ability. They are just as effective no matter what they believe in, as long as they have the basic traits of authenticity and good communication. Many leaders in history are discredited just because they had poor morals. I hope that my thesis can bring to light the bias we have against different morals, so that we can see that while some people are horrible people, they can be effective leaders too.
In my years of watching elections and seeing accusations flung about ‘bad leaders’ and ‘morally corrupt’ candidates, I have seen the disproportionate weight that people put on a leader’s moral compass. Morals should not be considered when discussing how effective a leader is. The keys to effective leadership are good communication and authenticity. If a leader can be authentic, through transparency and empathy, and communicate well, by being decisive, assertive, and consistent, then they can be great leaders.

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