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Leadership is a loaded term that tends to mean something different depending on the person, the culture and the time you ask. Leadership also has levels or layers that fit into the context of the time and situation.  If you asked me to define leadership 2o years ago, you would have gotten an entirely different answer than you will today. What leadership means to someone depends largely on what level of exposure to leaders that a person has. A leader to a factory line worker means something totally different to asking an officer in the Air Force.

Today, I would like to comment on leadership in context of the presidential election, since that is the highest level that is in the minds of most of us in America. What is a good leader?  Someone with lots of experience or someone who inspires.  The Obama and Clinton comparison that sometimes catches us all in deep debate. 

Here is my take on this simple question: A leader’s job is to inspire those around and under him. That is the most important quality.  Before you bug out and reject my statement–that is not the only quality, but is is what I strongly hold on the very top of the list. Without the ability to inspire, one person cannot accomplish the maximum potential of their team or their country in this case.  Leaders who motivate and allow people to believe in something more than themselves will always accomplish more than those who lead by fear, obligation or entitlement.

A leader must have great judgement.  He must have judgment to make choices that are unpopular, but necessary, know when he has to bring in experts to augment his lack of knowledge and experience, when to go against the status quo and when to uphold the status quo. 

A leader must have empathy.  She needs to know how decisions effect others and how sacrifice feels before asking others to sacrifice.   

A leader must be humble.  Respect comes to this who deliver results and are honest about who they are. I am more drawn to someone who speaks to my heart, emotion and experience that those who meet an ideal that I cannot imagine living up to.  Being human is a requirement for a leader, a must have, not nice to have.  

I can go on forever on this subject, but I wanted to put it out there that leadership is more about who you affect others than about what you have done in your past.  In this case, Obama meets my criteria for what a great leader is.  His words, his story and his humanity is distinctive.  I am certain he will be wise enough to surround himself with others who have great and profound experience to augment any short comings he might have from that standpoint.

The other two, you know, Clinton and McCain–are they really going to inspire the country to to what is hard, but what is right and true?  Experience cannot augment humanity, charisma and grace.