On "Strength" and Leadership

Sharp marketing blogger Seth Godin had an illuminating post the other day. He writes: "Sometimes we confuse strength with:

• Loudness
• Brusqueness
• An inability to listen
• A resistance to seeing the world as it is
• An unwillingness to compromise small things to accomplish big ones
• Fast talking
• Bullying
• External unflappability
• Callousness
• Lying
• Policies instead of judgment
• ...and being a jerk.

Well, once you put it that way, it's pretty clear that none of these things are actually signs of strength.

In fact, they are symptoms of brittleness, of insecurity and of a willful disconnect from the things that matter." 

Without saying it outright, I think what Seth's pointing out is that we are choosing between having a leader that is sober, pragmatic, who listens and thinks before speaking or we can have a not-so-crypto cryptofascist, megalomaniac, impudent, insecure, whining, screaming cantaloupe who claims to be strong but has accomplished nothing in his life but extort money from people, companies and charities through scams. For so long, Americans have been deceived by people who talk first and don't listen let alone think before speaking. Even while it has been shown that introverts make much better leaders. BECAUSE THEY LISTEN. As an introvert, it pains me to use all-caps, but it's been one of the fundamental truths of my life and one I have to emphasize. 

Susan Cain provides an exhaustive study of why introverts make better leaders in her book Quiet:The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. Her observation has been shown in plenty of Management Studies, though these were the same Management Studies that 30 years ago said you had to be extroverted.That world is thankfully dying. 

Ezra Klein has done a brilliant job of showing what Hillary Clinton's greatest strength as a leader would be--her listening. Klein's sane profile of her, which is actually one of the best pieces of journalism I've read in quite some time, rings especially true for me in a culture with media from all perspectives--left, right, center--that have demonized her for being private, being cagey, for being a woman, for not wanting to sit around and bake cookies--I don't either. Anybody who's been in the public eye for basically her whole life is going to have all kinds of faults, but being loyal, being pragmatic, and being a listener are qualities I can't wait to see in a president. That's real strength. I really don't want to see phony "strength."