Leadership Lessons from the Elections

Tim Elmore is one of those people that when he writes, I read. His area of expertise is in leadership development and training; specifically, leadership development in the lives of Christian young people. These of course, are important issues to me as well. And Time always has insightful things to offer to the discussion, theory, and practice of leadership training for young people. The following article deals with lessons we can learn about leadership form the recent Presidential elections. I’ll post his explanations of each of these six principles over the next few weeks. Here is the first, including the introduction . . .

Lessons I Learned From the Election
Tim Elmore www.GrowingLeaders.com

Well, we made American history. Barack Obama was just elected as the first African-American president of the United States. It was a clear victory for Senator Obama, if not a landslide in the electoral college. I felt like both Barak Obama and John McCain showed class in their speeches following the election results. Now that it's all over, and the dust has settled, I have reflected on lessons we can learn from this historic campaign. What did the whole thing teach us about leadership and about people? Let me suggest these insights for you to discuss with your team.

1. Leaders must inspire people before they challenge people.

This was a big difference between Obama and McCain. John McCain certainly challenged Americans to be a part of a cause that was bigger than themselves. Great sound bite. Healthy habit to practice. Unfortunately, he was unable to inspire the population first. Unlike Senator Obama, he came across a little angry and intense. Obama was able to inspire people with a picture of a preferred tomorrow- like both Clinton and Reagan before him. When leaders do this, people feel they're able to accept the challenge of the present realities they must face.

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Blessings
Bill H