An effective leader listens to all sides of a debate and uses his or her own knowledge and wisdom to come to a decision. Their ability should make their decisions seem better than a less able leader. After a decision is made, a truly effective leader should be very good at enforcing the standard and upholding the decision.
One major thing I think they need to focus on is working toward making small business opportunities more lucrative. There is a lot of back and forth about the Affordable Healthcare Act and how it affects small business owners but effective leaders could work through these issues and help make this law better for everyone.
If it seems small business owners are suffering financially because they have to provide healthcare or get a fine, then a good leader would find a way to make this work instead of making it a lose-lose situation for small businesses. By providing them with some assistance and incentives, they can provide good healthcare for their employees, which helps everyone and changes lives.
Sure, this is just one example in a sea of things that need some real leadership from the politicians in our country, but they are useful examples none-the-less.
This blog article is a branch out to life-optimizing readers like yourself that were kind enough to do a little question and answer interview survey with me. I’m still working on my interview skills (and some of these were done via email/not-in-person!), but I do promise good, raw, and honest answers from normal people like you and me. I do my best to NOT filter these answers, except for the bad words and hateful speech (which doesn’t happen often).
Topic of Interest: Effective Political Leadership
‘R’ = Richard N. Stephenson (me!)
‘I’ = Interviewee (anonymous by request unless otherwise noted)
R: Give an example of effective political leadership being used that has inspired you (from either internet/mainstream media examples or personal examples).
I: During the 1950s Linden Johnson stood out on a limb and signed the Civil Rights act. He knew it political suicide for not only him, but his party in the south, and did it any way. Today, the south is still a bastion of red states, but African Americans can ride anywhere on the god damned bus they want.
R: How do you think a better understanding of effective political leadership would help other people in their personal or professional life?
I: I don’t dabble too much in politics, but i believe it can help some people in their lives. Some people might be inspired by the leadership of a certain political and try to be more like him/her in their daily lives. I think that political leadership is important to everyone’s life in one way or the other.
R: Give an example of how effective political leadership has helped you professionally or personally.
I: I have derived great confidence in our country since obama took over. Before when bush was in office there seemed to be a lot more fear floating around. I see a lot of changes that obama makes and am inspired to change myself cause now it seems possible.
R: Describe at least one way you think effective political leadership could cause trouble or hurt someone in their personal or professional life.
I: I suppose effective leadership could cause the politician himself to be injured. Most people seem to prefer the lying type of politician who arguably could be the better leader. Other than that i feel effective leadership is essential for political leadership. It could never hurt as bad as what we have seen so far in history.
R: Give an example of how effective political leadership has hurt you or caused you trouble in the past.
I: Being a strong leader can certainly turn some people off. I have had to make tough decisions that angered my team members. I have been gossiped about and maligned because some people didn’t agree with my decisions.
R: How do you think effective political leadership could help you in a professional setting? Why is that?
I: Political leadership gives you the abilities to listen to the majority and the minority. You will gain the ability to address their problem and see if they will like you. In the outside world, you will enter the workforce as a beginner, but as you tend to others and do it with accuracy to satisfy everyone, there is a higher chance that you will rise up the ladder.
R: Give an example of how effective political leadership could be useful at work. Why do you think this?
I: At a place of business, you need a light hand when dealing with sensitive issues, weather it be the public or your employees. You need to know how to deal with tough situations and creating compromises within certain parameters to keep all parties happy, or you will have no customers, or employees. You need to be able to reach your achieved goal, while making sure that all parties are happy.
R: How do you think effective political leadership could help you at home? Why is that?
I: Being a political leader will have your priorities straight. That positive factor will carry over to the home. The home will be very well maintained and so will the family.
R: Give an example of how effective political leadership could be useful at home or in family life. Why do you think this?
I: Effective political leadership typically invovles significant charisma. For example, consider former President Clinton. Charisma allows a leader to appeal not only to his constituents, but also to work more easily with other leaders. Using Clinton as an example, he was able to “cross the aisle” and work with Republicans in the House of Representatives. In the home or family life these same skills would be useful in finding consensus among family members. In a family, just like in politics, there are varrying viewpoints and competing personalities. Effective political leadership would help to bring these varrying vewipoints and personalities together to find common ground.
R: How do you think effective political leadership could help you in a personal relationship? Why is that?
I: It could help because political leaders could ease the stress of everyday life for citizens. Therefore my personal relationships will not be strained by daily stressors that the politic leader has alleviated. A well running society will allow for well running personal relationships, even on the individual level.
R: Give an example of how effective political leadership could be useful in a personal relationship. Why do you think this?
I: I was once in a relationship with a female who supported the political party i was against. The relationship evolved to her actually siding with the political party i favored. It can obviously cause problems in relationships because for some people politics is their life.
R: Describe at least one thing you would like to learn more about effective political leadership.
I: I think I would like to learn political leadership in aspects of the economy, IE budgeting. Given our financial issues on the national level, I think it would be really useful to have someone who is good at math and budgeting. I also think it would benefit everyone if there could be someone who stood up and said THIS IS HOW ITS GONNA BE because thats what NEEDS to happen.
R: Give your number one piece of advice for someone looking to learn more about effective political leadership.
I: Know your constituency. Start by going out into the public and meeting the working people in your immediate community. Find time for work and being active as a working member (not as an officer) in a non-profit organization (not including religious organizations) in your community. Get first hand information from the people who are in your hand. If someone wants to be effective in political leadership, they should be able to lead, by example, in their own local community.Someone can’t practice political leadership once they are in office, they have to earn the experience working for the people in at the lowest community levels.
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How was that for a nice little journey into this topic? I hope you enjoyed this interview and found at least one useful bit of information you can immediately begin to apply in your life. Yes, homework is never seen as a nice word, but it’s useful – give yourself an action to use at least 1 thing from this article to help change your life.
Please share your thoughts, experiences, or your own interview answers and let’s share some real life wisdom, okay?