OK - SO THE COURSE HASN'T STARTED YET

But if I don't take the time to work on this blog now, I'll likely keep putting it off to the very last for each assignment during the course. Or am I revealing too much to the prof... Well, I am trying to take a proactive stance so that should count for something. And the more I do it, the less "Oh, this will take for-e-ver!" the work will feel. Yeah, I know. Sounds if I'm about to do a Julie Andrews and chirp about being jolly in the face of, well, whatever - pick a movie, she's chirping about making things fun in it somewhere!

Thoughts on leadership. Being the lemming in the lead. There's the vision of Napoleon on his white horse in the Alps with his right hand either pointing the way forward or having just thrown a snowball at the head of one of his generals and acting as if he didn't. Noble, valiant, inspiring. So why is he off the road while the rest trudge in the background doing all the grunt work? It seems they're doing well enough without having to trudge in his horse's droppings. And there were those little snafus in Moscow and Waterloo. 

Then there's that image of what I like to think of as the angry leader, you know, all teeth, no hair like the stereotypical gym teacher, army sergeant, Susan Powter - now how frightening was she? Yeah, people were motivated alright but only in a Hollywood movie or an extremists camp could that sort lead and be admired. And I don't count Richard Simmons in this group: scary alright, make-up deprived circus clown channeling Shelley Winters scary, but not in a "do it or else" motivation.

Let's not forget the Moses style of leadership: wanders off, comes back with a set of rules, wanders off, comes back with a new set of rules, wanders off... well, you get the picture. Got the feeling that the ol' tribe would see him coming and collectively go: "Now what? Oy!" 

Or the Lord Kitchener approach, out of touch with the frontline reality being miles away with no clue as to the hardship, misery and sheer logistic stupidity of his latest directive on the lives of his troops. All looks fine on paper and what could go wrong with a bit of mud and a slight uphill incline to get to the enemy? And surely if we send a couple of a thousand over the trench tops at once, they can't all get shot. Oh, they can..., well, send over some more as the enemy can't possibly have that much ammunition. Oh, turns out they do..., well,...

Or the Monty Python King Arthur approach (divine right or "you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you"). 

Or the classic, all powerful "Because I'm Mom that's why!" Somehow, being dad just isn't as fear inspiring because a refusal is usually followed by a "Mommmmmmmmm!" followed soon after by a "Oh, honey..."

Alright, so enough for now of what I don't think is good leadership - didn't say they weren't effective leaderships: those pyramid and that big wall over in China didn't just build themselves you know.