Sunday, July 16, 2017

Getting elected vs. governing

Certain politicians have a knack of getting elected against all odds. Look at Trump or Macron (in France)!

Obama was no different and the list could go on and on. The problem, as I see it, is that getting elected is one thing, governing a country, quite another. Generally, folks who have mastered the secret and the skills of winning elections are super salespeople, but don't necessarily have the skills commensurate with governing.

Even though Obama was systematically obstructed by the Republicans, he lacked some basic decisive skills that will keep on dogging his legacy. My point is that someone good at governing must be a master at making decisions and more often than not, making them very, very fast; in fact, literally on the fly!

Good CEOs excel at this. Trump should be able to do that, but he's totally blinded and driven by his hypertrophied ego and the results of his efforts are so self-centered that they can't work for the leadership position he was elected to.

Macron is yet an unknown entity, but there are plenty of signs indicating that he's all fluff and little substance. Making good decisions is the result of making many, many decision.

That's right, showing some “high-mileage” in the decision-making department. This also means that when decisions are a way of daily life, some decisions will be good and some (let's hope few of them) will be terrible; yet, the strong leader will be able to live with the bad ones, learn from them and start a virtuous cycle of sound decision-making.

So, why are most politicians bad at governing? Simply because they don't trust themselves to make good decisions or are too preoccupied by their own reelection. Then, why don't we have politicians like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs? Simply because they see the job too demeaning, don't respect the political profession, its constant lying and its immoral mode of operations.

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