Disgrace

I've known a few bosses who lived large in the volatile and visible world of business. Working within their sense of purpose was all-consuming. It was exciting to catch a ride on the buckboard of power and opportunity.

A successful leader: now that's a paradox. Take a person of high ideals and integrity and a heart to make a difference and mix it with a heaping dose of business ruthlessness, and you've got a CEO. They are the lecturers of life, the ones we clamor for and emulate. They seem to have the perfect blueprint for success. We listen and photograph and follow them around.

I've had a couple of bosses take the tumble from on high. One moment they have the keys to the city, and the next there is a silence so profound you can actually hear their career slip off the cliff. I know firsthand the confusion followed by a loss of confidence after a good public flogging. Perhaps an Achilles heel has surfaced somewhere or an unethical business deal was leaked to the adoring public. There are no laurels to carry on, no prior good deeds that are not sullied by that singular fatal mistake.  Nothing is left but to retreat and dine on the leftovers.

I know that is why most of us live in fear of the public arena. There is no question there are people among us whose contributions could change the world. It is noble to embrace the idea to serve. But there's that first test to walk barefoot across live coals by a culture that eats its young. And then there is the nagging fear that somewhere on down the road it is likely there will be a mistake made, being both imperfect and unforgiving, and that the wrong comment will be made to the wrong person at the wrong time. That faux pas will cast a pall over a lifetime of service and all the gains will be summarily dismissed.

Seems to me we're the ones who should feel the disgrace, for letting the entertainment industry that whines and cries loudest for leadership be the divining rod for who is most worthy to serve. We really need to turn off those little boxes in the livingroom and stop listening to the news talk anchors tell us how to think.