Great leaders do not whine. An example from this week's news. . .
At a Coast Guard commencement address on Wednesday, President Trump said this (about himself), "No politician in history - and I say this with great surety - has been treated worse or more unfairly."
From a leadership perspective - this makes me ponder the value of such statements. Here's what statements like this are meant to accomplish: they are said to garner sympathy and shore up the base of support as in "poor, pitiful me . . .don't you feel sorry for me. . .and aren't you going to come to my defense?" Problem number one: it is self-serving; good leaders are not self-serving. They should be present to focus on their constituents.
Problem number two: these types of big generalizations come printed with huge targets on them. People want to prove the assumption wrong. USA Today immediately came up with a list of five politicians who were treated more unfairly. The Facebook meme had Trump's quote above a photo of Nelson Mandela in jail. Big, overblown statements of victimization become immediately suspect.
Also, if one is prone to play the "fairness" card in self-defense - you'd better make sure that your own deck is in order. The President who is whining that he is not being treated fairly is the same individual who mocked a reporter with a disability, who gleefully led crowds in chants of "Lock her up," who routinely makes insinuations without reference, who blames his staffers for his problems and who throws his own party under the bus for his follies. Yes, leaders come under more scrutiny than others due to their naturally higher profile; if you are going to lay claim to something you need to make sure you will not be accused of hypocrisy.
And then there's this. . .leaders have lots of power. To claim "unfair" seems, at best, disingenuous. . .and an admission of weakness. We do not want to follow leaders who are weak.
Leaders, by the very definition, are meant to take us somewhere. To wallow in self-pity and martyrdom gets us nowhere.
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My book "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" is available on Amazon Kindle.
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