Why Do We Celebrate Incompetent Leaders?

[GO-NAD!]

Over the course of my naval career, the best leaders I served under were invariably the quietest.

 

[jinjuku]

Good leaders are crafted. Not born. Too many think it's an innate ability.

 

[highfigh]

Good leaders are crafted. Not born. Too many think it's an innate ability.

What kind of hammer is used to shape a good leader? I'm thinking that a ball pein hammer would work.

Asking for a friend.

 

[j_garcia]

lol. John Oliver just had an article about LBJ regarding Presidential Libraries. After a clip of LBJ, Oliver said "Remember when Presidents were boring?"

Good leaders are crafted. Not born. Too many think it's an innate ability.

I think it is a little bit of both. You can't have a great leader without a person who has the personal conviction to be one, but you also don't get a strong leader from someone who hasn't gone through some adversity.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Good leaders are crafted. Not born. Too many think it's an innate ability.

While I'm in general agreement with that, there's probably an element of nature involved also, just as with intelligence.

Regardless, whether it's nature, nurture, or some combination of the two, it's tangential to the question posed in the video. Why do societies and organizations tend to look up to and respect people who are - when they are viewed through an objective and critical eye - actually incompetent?

As stated in the video, Shackleton has been considered to be a prime example of an outstanding leader for many decades. Yet, he needlessly put his ship and crew in great peril. Saving his men does not wipe the slate clean of his grave errors of judgement, only mitigates them. We rarely think about Amundsen, whose expeditions were great successes, because they were achieved without drama.

 

[lovinthehd]

I tend to look at those who support such weak leaders as probably those who somehow think they can do the job without any clue....like leaders like drumph