A633.1.2.RB_Leadership Gap

There are many reasons why there are gaps in leadership styles and quality. Every leader is different and they are affected by different challenges such a geographical/location, socio-economical, and personal preferences, which in turn affects their specific quality of leadership. If every leader was the same, we would all be the same and therefore would only need leader, in turn creating a monopoly of leadership; that would be awfully boring if you ask me.  We need different leaders from different paths in life; different backgrounds, different histories, genders, religions, creeds, nationalities, and so forth.

For the sake of this blog posting I will focus the idea of leader on the President of the United States of America

Take for example what is going on right now in the news.  The topic of DOMA (The Defense Act of Marriage) and Prop 8 are going to the Supreme Court to see if they are deemed constitutional or unconstitutional.  Our President, Barak Obama, posted on Twitter today stating, “RT (re-tweet) if you stand with same-sex couples around the country fighting for the right to marry who they love.”  No other president in our history has stood for this change proving that leaders and leadership changes “the times” as well.  Sometimes the right thing to do is to make changes that people are afraid of, like this change.  People are scared that allowing same-sex couples to marry is going to affect their heterosexual marriage; since I am gay I am going to check my Gay Agenda and see if that’s on there:

7:00am – Get up for work
7:30am – Leave for work
8:00am – Get to work
Noon – Lunch
5:00pm – Leave work
5:30pm – Go to the gym
6:45pm – Get home, shower and make dinner
8:00pm – Plot a way to ruin same-sex marriage with gay-marriage
8:15pm – Do homework
10:00pm – Go to bed 

I suppose I can squeeze in some time to make peoples worst nightmares a reality but in all actuality, heterosexual marriages seem to find enough ways to ruin themselves without my help or any other same-sex couple.  But getting to the point, leaders and especially new leaders have to be willing to change conventional ways of thinking in order to better the world, which to me is the most important.  We close the gap by getting past the old way of thinking and embrace the new way.

Has your own attitude to leaders changed in your life, and if so, how?

I think my attitude has changed over the year and will continue to change as I get older.  Each leader is different and they will view things differently than I will which in turn will affect how I view their leadership skills and abilities.  There will always be some leaders that I am totally in support of, some I don’t support ever and others that will be in flux as their stances change.

If we take as a starting point the attitude to those in authority/leaders as held by your grandparents, and then look at those attitudes held by your parents, and then by you, and then by the younger generation, is there a changing trend?  If so, what is it?

I have found that those who are older than me have a stronger and more dedicated connection to leaders of their generations and I have also found that those of certain political affiliations have a stronger connection.  For me I think as generation change, people will stop becoming so tied to their leaders but instead will start to find their own voices.  We are becoming more independent as a nation and therefore are less tied to our leaders than in previous generations. We will always look to someone for guidance but I don’t think it will be like it was in previous decades.

Why do you think that this has occurred?

We are changing as a not only a nation but as a race; the human race is changing and evolving.  We need leaders, but we no longer fully depend on them (speaking for American’s). No longer do we sit by the radio at night and wait to see what our leader has to say, most people don’t even watch the State of Union address or follow politics at all. There is no longer a connection with our leaders than I think most people sought after.  I know that our current leader, our president, was someone I voted for because I need his liberal ideas to help move the mindset of our culture to a place that met the times amongst us. New age thinking is scary but it has to be done in order to ensure the past doesn’t repeat itself.

Closing the leadership gap will only take place when the people and then leaders change.  It will take and it may never fully happen but if we take one day at a time we will get there.