Leaders – Strong or Good

What did Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Nicolai Lenin, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King have in common?

They were all strong leaders.

What do Walter Mondale and President Reagan have in common?

They both aspire to have their names added to the above list. Although, after the President’s fumbling and bumbling in the debate with Mondale, and after his childish excuse that his failure was because he lacked proper makeup, he has lost all hope of being included. He no longer exhibits leadership that is working. Arm wrestling skills, about which he boasts, are no substitute for mental alertness.

What characterizes a strong leader?

A strong leader articulates the murky discontent of people who consider themselves frustrated by conditions over which they have no control, trapped in a maze from which there is no escape. He brings into focus what was a blurred impression of the source of their troubles. He, or his speech writers, is a master of language.

A strong leader picks a person or thing as a scapegoat for the people’s frustrations – a devil in their midst.

A strong leader offers people a concrete solution to their ills, a direct path out of the maze. The solution may or may not be rational. It must be simple, and it must be specific.

The strong leader offers hope. He always promises a bright future.

A strong leader entertains no doubts about his programs. “He who hesitates is lost.”

A strong leader is constantly tempted to feel that the welfare of those he aspires to lead coincides with his own personal welfare, rather than the other way around. Therein lies the difference between a great leader and one who is merely strong. Strong leadership is dangerous unless it is wise and ethical as well.

A case study of great leadership is contained in the story of Moses. The author of Deuteronomy concludes his account, “And there has not risen a prophet since in Israel, like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” The author suggests that Moses’ greatness is attested by the signs and wonders he performed; but an incident recounted in Exodus 32 better explains the appraisal.

While Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, the people had made the golden calf and bowed down to it. Jehovah spoke Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiff-necked people; now therefore let me alone, that – I may consume them, but of you I will make a great nation” (Exodus 32:9-10). But Moses, after he surveyed the debauchery of the calf, went back to Sinai to meet Jehovah, and prayed, “Alas, this people have sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now if thou wilt forgive their sin – and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written.”

The Egyptian prince of Chapter 2 of the book of Exodus identified himself with the Hebrew slave suffering under the Egyptian taskmaster; and the great deliverer and lawgiver of the Israelite people identified himself with even the least and lowest of the wandering nation.

This is a great leader, strong, and wise, and ethical.