Leadership Is Sorely Lacking in America These Days

This morning, bright and early, I received yet another criticism from my CEO. As always, it was via email, and as usual, she CCed about a dozen people on it to point out my incompetence.

Considering that I don’t get any complaints from actual customers and seeing as how she’s not even in her office most days, I can’t say I care all that much about her opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll try to take it into consideration going forward, but I’m not going to flagellate myself for not living up to her oftentimes unclear and sometimes downright impossible standards.

I have a life outside of trying to make her love me, which she never will for reasons that rather escape me. I’m usually quite the likable person, a hard worker and good at what I do.

But I’m not writing today to bad mouth my boss. Not that one, anyway. My supervisor and my supervisor’s supervisor on the other hand? Now that’s another story altogether.

You see, both of them were CCed on that email. Both of them are usually CCed on such correspondences. Yet neither of them ever even try to stand up for me. They don’t give an opinion at all, quietly trying to blend into the background of my supposed stupidity.

This isn’t anything new. I long-ago learned I couldn’t rely on either of them for support or even guidance. They’re cowards who say one thing and do another. In fact, my supervisor’s supervisor even looked over the offending broadcast before it went out, making edits and all.

He always does, mainly because he’s a micromanager. Yet to my knowledge, he has never said as much to my CEO. She blames me fully for every supposed error I make. And he sits off on the sideline and lets her.

Why?

It’s not because he’s a bad guy. He’s actually quite likable as a general rule. But he’s also an utter failure as a leader. He wants the paycheck and he wants the right to put his two cents in, but he doesn’t want to take the fall when things go “wrong.”

Put bluntly, that’s not how leadership works. A real leader isn’t a coward. A real leader acknowledges the truth, even when the truth isn’t flattering.

Sorry, Mr. President and most politicians out there, but it’s true. Nor is it just in business or politics that America finds herself woefully devoid of true leaders. We preach lack of responsibility in education, our families run amok on no discipline, our churches embrace the philosophy of anything goes, and our personal lives are unstructured and destructive.

This kind of “leadership” ultimately leads nowhere good.

After six years of experience with this kind of management, I can honestly say I have no respect for my bosses or my company. After a century of experience, America has no respect for itself.