[November 4, 2016] On this date, November 4th in 1979, Iranian “students” stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. This lead to an oil embargo, the holding of American hostages, and to the humiliation of the United States. U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy, his energy strategy, and how he handled the crisis are examples of dangerous outcomes when senior leaders fail.
Those who study leadership would do well to learn more about President Carter’s failures during his time in office. You can read my comments, for example, on his malaise speech here where he blamed America’s problems on its citizens instead of taking on the problems himself. Something a leader must not do.
A senior leader should not be pessimistic and never put that into speeches and actions like Carter did repeatedly. Even to this day, most who lived during that time consider Carter to be the worst U.S. president in a century. I doubt much of the current presidential campaign for the White House will change that assessment.
There are many examples of senior leadership failures; Dean Acheson leaving out South Korea in his speech on America’s defensive perimeter1 (the Korean War followed) or Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement with Adolf Hitler2 (World War II followed) are two of the more egregious cases. These were foreign policy failures and many died as a result but senior leadership failures can be due to ethical lapses, ideological blindness, loss of motivation, risk aversion, poor communication, etc.
Lapses in one’s ethics are common and can easily bring down a business or government. To illustrate, Venezuela is a country that continues to slide into an economic and social abyss because of its unethical socialist leaders.3 Enron, Worldcom, Refco, and Bernard Madoff Investment Securities were U.S. companies that failed because of greed and ethical issues with its senior leadership.
It is no surprise that when senior leaders fail the results can be devastating and recovery can be decades in the making, if it can be accomplished at all. Ellen DeGeneres, American comedian, once said that “It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.” She’s right and that’s why leaders must study the history of nations and their leaders, especially those who fail.
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- https://www.theleadermaker.com/words-have-consequences/
- https://www.theleadermaker.com/neville-chamberlain-and-u-s-foreign-policy/
- https://www.theleadermaker.com/venezuela-leadership-and-socialism/