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Don't want to hear it after what you did at the UN, Mr. Powell.
by glhaynes 17y ago
Don't want to hear it after what you did at the UN, Mr. Powell.
- stretchwithme 17y agoLeadership ends where letting yourself be manipulated and used begins.
- mberning 17y agoOh give me a break. Just because the man made a mistake doesn't mean everything he has ever said is invalidated.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- psranga 17y agoInteresting choice of words: "mistake".
- pg 17y agoCan you give an example of something he says in this presentation that you disagree with? Did you read the presentation before posting this?
- glhaynes 17y agoI didn't, and my post is unhelpful to the discussion, a discussion which could be good. But it's difficult to stomach a lecture on leadership from someone who allowed themselves to be led so badly astray, leading so many to such ruin.
- pg 17y agoYes, I understood that from your initial comment. The problem with that sort of judgement, though, is that it's so cheap to make. Cheap in that ad hominems require very little work, but also cheap in that they're so easy to upvote. Largely content free but inflammatory comments are to comments what LOLcats are to submissions. The comparative lack of such comments here as compared to e.g. places like Reddit is one of the things that makes this site good. I wish you'd try to keep it the way you found it. Incidentally, one of the things you missed by not reading the presentation is that it doesn't seem to be a lecture on leadership by Colin Powell, but a lecture by someone else who uses a lot of quotes attributed to Colin Powell.
- mixmax 17y agoOne of his points is that when you have a certain amount of information you should go with your gut - if you wait until you have 100% information you'll almost always be too late. Guess he heats his own dogfood for better or worse. I wouldn't trust a leader that hasn't made any mistakes.
- gruseom 17y agoBut it wasn't his gut that he went with. The general reporting is that Powell was against the war, against the fiction of an imminent threat, against the "intelligence" he was advancing. He chose to go against that and do as he was told. That's what makes him a tragic figure. (That's the narrative, anyway. Obviously at this distance there's no way to know if it's true, but based on everything I read and heard at the time, I believe it.) Other parts of the presentation seem ironic, too: Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off. Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred... Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard. Painfully ironic, in the light of history. Two points, though. First, no one who hasn't been in that situation has a right to claim that he wouldn't do the same thing. Second, Powell was not the leader.
- jsz0 17y agoBased on what I've read, specifically in Bob Woodward's books, Powell put his loyalty to his party/President first. On leadership I can't take him seriously. If he decides to write or teach about how to be a head-in-the-sand loyalist I'll definitely check it out. That can be a valuable skill in certain situations.