Being in a leadership position myself I do understand the requirements. These are some pretty basic skills necessary for success.

I’d like a few leaders in our nation to soak this up like a sponge.

1. Honesty. Tell me the truth, tell me I screwed up, tell me YOU screwed up. Tell me how bad it is and how we fix it. Tell me the truth, not what you think I want to hear. I am an adult I can handle it and perhaps I can assist with the solution.

2. Sacrifice. Show me you are willing to take the tough road, show me you are willing to accept the responsibility for your actions, as you expect me to. Show me you will take a bullet for me and I will stand in front of the gun for you. Show me, don’t tell me. Put yourself out there and apologize when you’re wrong. Show me you are big enough to take the path less traveled and I’ll be on the path with you.

3. Example. Be an example of your expectations. Don’t tell me times are tough from your penthouse suite. Don’t tell me how bad it’s going to be from your private plane. Don’t call for sacrifice from us while you’re playing golf every weekend. You show me the way to handle adversity and I’ll follow your lead. Don’t tell me I need to pay taxes and you dodge them. Don’t lower my income and increase your own.

4. Courage. Have the balls to make a fact based decision and stand by it, have the courage to change the decision if it turns out to be a bad one. Have the courage to STAND in the face of opposition and state your case without pointing fingers. Have the courage to listen to others and develop a plan based on input. Have the courage to give credit where it’s due and to accept the responsibility for bad decisions made.

5. Honor. All of the above equal an HONORABLE person and without them, there can be no honor. You can not lead people or a nation without honor.

These are but a few requirements of a leader. Integrity, humanity, decency and gratitude are all parts of leading people. What we have in America now is anything but. WHY?

Why are we where we are? Because the very first skill on the list is missing. HONESTY in our elected officials was broken and with it TRUST is missing. We don’t trust our leaders. We don’t believe them when they speak. We have become skeptical of everything they say and with GOOD REASON. They have broken that which can never be broken and be successful.

Not ALL politicians are guilty of lying and cheating, but it’s like a company with 10 managers and 2 of them are lying and cheating the employees. The company as a whole will suffer because of the actions of the few. The cancer in the company is LIES. Word spreads to other departments and soon all managers are liars. It’s happened to every company at one point or another. The ones still around have either fired the liars, or changed their behavior. You can take that example and apply it to our ruling class.

Just trying to help.

Honesty, Sacrifice, Example, Courage and honor. Will get you ahead in life. The opposite should put you in jail for the rest of your life.