Much ink is being spilled these days about the failure of our elites.  I agree with the overall notion; in both government and business, we’ve seen colossal incompetence on display.

I think a huge part of the problem is that our leaders don’t really want to be leaders.  Too many of those who are reaching the upper echelons today are motivated not by a desire to deliver to results and to engage in the hard work it takes to do so, but by the titles and perks and power of position.

I’ve previously posted about how much I enjoyed Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein.  One of his points in the book was about the awesome responsibility of leadership:

“…Suddenly you are the Old Man, the Boss, Commanding Officer Present – and you discover with a sickening shock that fellow human beings are depending on you alone to tell them what to do, how to fight, how to complete the mission and get out alive.  They wait for the sure voice of command – while seconds trickle away – and it’s up to you to be that voice, make decisions, give the right orders… and not only the right ones but in a calm, unworried tone.  Because it’s a cinch, gentlemen, that your team is in trouble – bad trouble! – and a strange voice with panic in it can turn the best combat team in the Galaxy into a leaderless, lawless, fear-crazed mob.

“The whole merciless load will land without warning.  You must act at once and you’ll have only God over you.  Don’t expect Him to fill in the tactical details; that’s your job.  He’ll be doing all that a soldier has a right to expect if He helps you keep the panic you are sure to feel out of your voice.”

The Commandant continued:  “That’s the Moment of Truth, gentlemen.  Regrettably there is no method known to military science to tell a real officer from a glib imitation with pips on his shoulders, other than through ordeal by fire.  Real ones come through – or die gallantly; imitations crack up.”

Too many leaders today shirk their responsibility to tell those depending on them “what to do, how to fight, how to complete the mission and get out alive.”  Too many of them crack up, yet keep their titles and perks and power of position despite their clear incompetence.  Too many of them believe they’re delegating, when they’re really shirking the jobs that are theirs to do alone.  But this is not delegating.  It’s dereliction.