Letter: Effective leadership a lost art in society?

Dale Carnegie stated that an effective leader is someone who leads by example and others tend to follow because they believe it's the right thing to do.

In defining success, "success guru" Peter Drucker said "management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things."

Forbes magazine listed three fundamentals of effective leadership: Inspire successful vision, excel at communicating, use good judgment.

The seven tenets of effective leadership found at Google: Inspire action, be optimistic, have integrity, give support, have confidence, communicate, be decisive.

Whether in government, business or family life, effective leadership is a necessity for successful results. Unfortunately, our country is failing in all three.

Currently, partisan, dysfunctional government in Washington, lack of ethics in corporate America, and the failure of our educational system and family unit indicate leadership is greatly lacking throughout our society.

Congressional and administration public approval is at an all-time low. The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that fewer than half of Americans trust chief executives, while 35 percent of employees judged their supervisors to be ineffective, mishired or failures. Parental responsibility continues to decline, while selfish irresponsibility is rising.

What does this tell us?

Successful, common-sense leadership starts with leading by example, by being a positive motivator and communicator with high ethical standards and integrity, inspiring action and decisiveness.

You and I can encourage society to live by these standards and by setting the right example in our daily life. Live in the moment; you can make a difference.

Earle Everett

Moss Creek

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 8:22 AM with the headline "Letter: Effective leadership a lost art in society?."