Power-hungry people earn bad rap
In a recent interview with Hillary Clinton on “The Tyra Show,” Clinton spoke about change.
“Change is going to happen whether we want it or not, it’s just whether we’ll have the right change,” Clinton said, “the positive change, whether we’ll bring people together to solve out problems.”
We definitely need a change. A good leader can relate to and take care of the people underneath them, admit when they are wrong and when changes need to be made. A selfish leader, on the other hand, believes that he or she is always right and makes it “their way or the highway.”
Americans have felt this need for change since the Bush administration took office back in 2000, although Americans thought our newly-elected President would be the right person to facilitate much needed change of policy and bring hope to our nation. Power is not always a bad thing, but power in incapable hands will cause destruction.
The power given to leaders is often times abused because they let their ego get in the way. For example, when Bush took office, Americans were excited to spend the next four years of their lives with someone new, someone who would hopefully change the world for the better. In the aftermath of 9-11, a travesty that is to this day a topic of controversy among Americans, we were propelled into an unexpected war.
Like a marriage, a good leader must pick and choose battles. Not everything is life or death, but everyone wants the leader’s attention. In marriage, people learn to compromise, to give and take. With the Bush administration, it seemed that they held onto a mostly “take” attitude, sending hundreds of thousands of our troops into foreign countries as we waged war to control the oil economy. Rather than spend the millions of dollars we have spent on the Iraq War, that money could have been divided among our own country’s deficits, such as education, welfare or Med-cal.
Luckily, like marriages can be dismissed, our system is designed with checks and balances, one of which is the limit of terms in office. Right now our country is experiencing this need for a new leader and we are about to elect one into office. Thankfully, we are at the end of this era and most Americans are looking forward to the upcoming elections with hope and anticipation for the ideas the future leader will bring.
Here at the Lariat, we experienced our own time for change last semester. The time had come for a new leader, someone fresh and exciting and definately someone who cared about the staff and what is best for the newspaper.
Different people have different ideas and approaches, and while we never advocate one person’s choices over another in terms of leadership, it is important as a leader to take the needs of those who look up to you into consideration.
Not every person is made for leadership, but there are ways to learn effective management and leadership skills. Know that if you are a manager, leader, president, or in some other way in a position with others looking up to you, that you are a role model and people are looking to you to set an example.