by Peter A. Arthur-Smith

“The quality of our leaders is deteriorating and we’re so used to it it’s not alarming us anymore.” Quote from article by Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, September, 2024, entitled: ‘Bad Leadership Is a National Security Threat.

We have a world leadership crisis because we’ve allowed narcissists to steal the show. Our history books are filled with narcissists – consider the Roman Empire until the leadership rot created its downfall – but it’s got a whole lot worse in our media celebrity free-for-all. It’s compounded by the fact that, aided by Wall Street, most of these narcissists are numbers chasers, too. That’s what gives them the ammunition to build their empires. By showing how clever they are at accruing numbers, they’re able to attract sycophants like flies; who then do their bidding and keep them in power.

From Trump to Putin, Biden to Xing Ping, and from lesser country leaders to industrial, sporting and institutional leaders the story is the same – poor decisions, power plays, myopic self-interest and corruption while the rest of the world suffers. It’s time to start changing this scenario before we self-destruct. We have to do a better job of how we educate and select our leaders. The current narcissists obviously think they’re great!

Firstly, we have to change our leadership model and criteria, and then reform the way we allow leaders to rise to key positions. Included in that, we still don’t seem to have a clear grasp of what leadership really is – there are hundreds of different opinions. Although most of us believe we know leadership when we see it, we don’t seem able to put our finger on exactly what it is. But there are many different types of leaders – war and peace time leaders, start-up and large corporate leaders, sport and institutional leaders, gang and city leaders…and so the range goes on. However, it would seem that the best ones in each type, other than gang leaders, have five things in common – vision, integrity, courage, humility and wisdom…all of varying degrees.

With narcissists, they bully and bulldoze their way to prominence, so we have to find ways to thwart them in their tracks. Once narcissists have their teams of sycophants, who admire their “bosses” beyond belief, they become their enforcers. Where those sycophants aren’t on board, they are tossed to the winds. They ape their master’s/mistress’s bullying tactics and will muscle people onto their particular platform. Once they gain a degree of prominence, it’s very hard to shake them off. Regular folks are afraid to push against them for fear of their lives or livelihoods. So again, they have to be spotted early on and redirected wherever possible.

From a country leader perspective, this should be done by changing the current political game. This means choosing candidates that have distanced themselves from prior power bases or political parties. Germany and Israel, for instance, have country Presidents that are appointed for their objectivity, wisdom and insights. There are other countries that have less prominent figureheads. Between all of them, they give us a barometer of what might be possible for the future, although the five suggested leader traits above will provide an aura for configuring something even better. The closest model in the modern era would be someone like Nelson Mandela, deceased President of South Africa.

Why was he so admired and appreciated? Because he portrayed much of those five qualities consistent with enlightened leaders – vision, integrity, courage, humility and wisdom. After all, those characteristics were molded into him as a political prisoner in a small cell on Robbin’s Island, South Africa, over twenty plus years. Others who got somewhat close to this standard in the modern era include Golda Meir of Israel, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and Mahatma Ghandi of India. We shouldn’t overlook George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill either. Such examples gave their people hope and belief in their nations.

In my view, such qualities should become the standard for leaders across the board. Of course those standards would be higher for senior leaders in key positions and somewhat more accommodating for those in the early stages of their leadership careers. But, then, how would we go about spotting and bringing them to the fore, since such leaders are likely more humble and they don’t automatically make themselves available within the public arena? They’re often highly successful at what they’re already doing, but are not touting their leader prowess everywhere, so often only become known through word of mouth.

Perhaps we can use the identification and selection of an enlightened USA President as a potential example. The following moves could be anticipated to take us there:

» Carve the USA into seven distinct geographic regions – NE, Center East, SE, Upper MW, Lower MW,  NW, and SW.

» Use the five enlightened leadership (EL) criteria above to produce a limited listing of worthy EL candidates from each region; based upon input from prominent groups from within that region, such as chambers of commerce, trade unions, industrial groups, key institutions, academia, sports groups, not-for-profits, legal circles, economist-professional forums, and local/regional government. (Note: Candidates must not have close ties with any current political organizations over the prior five years).

» Organize a regional ballot to decide upon their optimum candidate to represent their region within a national election; again encourage people to cast their ballot based upon the five proposed EL criteria.

» Organize more than one national media event/debate so that the seven regional choices are showcased to a national audience, along with making their career histories available to the overall electorate.

» The seven regional candidates are then made available for a confidential national vote at usual national elections, for the electorate to decide their next US President. (Note: Lobby groups to be discouraged.)

» The successful candidate then has all the powers, duties and privileges available to current US Presidents for the next four years.

» Once in place, he/she will have a council of appropriate advisors, including the other six unsuccessful candidates, to assist with key national decisions.

Through such a format of consultation, presentation and election, we are more likely to unearth someone similar to a modern day Nelson Mandela. Such enlightened, non-narcissistic leaders will then become citizen leader models for younger generations to emulate. Confidence is likely to be reborn in future leaders going forward, reinforced by education in a more enlightened leadership model.