Colin Powell's Leadership Presentation | Hacker News Reader

Colin Powell's Leadership Presentation

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This picture (Powell waving a vial of white powder on the floor of the U.N.) says it all (for me): http://twitpic.com/r12s0. He let himself be bullied. He failed to stand up for himself (and us) when we needed him most.

Are you suggesting one failure precludes a man from being great? Have you ever failed in anything?

I'm not suggesting anything, just saying where he lost me (and his chance at becoming president). To err is human (hope that answers the second part of your "question" :) See this definitive speech for the rest: http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html

Leaders follow someone I suppose and in the military, breaking ranks isn't appreciated much. He was following his Commander in Chief's direction. Perhaps he was doing it as a sense of honor to his country. I don't disagree with what you are saying. I was one of those who believed they'd never find WMD's in Iraq and was very disappointed when I saw Powell towing the line.

I was disappointed precisely because I do believe he is a good man and wants to do what is best. I too thought he was destined to be president some day. He would have been a candidate I would want to vote for.

Many times we learn more from failure than success. I say in this instance, Powell has learned a great deal and could be a better leader because of it.

In the end, his mistake was following and not being a leader when he should have been.

Well said :)

There is room for only one leader in the White House. A leadership team needs to iron its differences out and present a solid face in public, and this is something you will know to be true from experience. At the end of the day, it is important for the leadership team to display confidence and unity in order to get people to follow them.

This doesn't mean you should groupthink or quash dissension. The failure of the Bush Administration was that Bush apparently did not do a good enough job of facilitating a real discussion and let certain folks steamroll Powell. That is not leadership either. In any case, it is wrong for people to fault Powell for what he said at the UN, from a leadership perspective.

If you've every wondered why some smart people are able to climb the success ladder while other, equally smart people stall, lesson 15 is your answer.

Some great lessons here.

As for Powell - this guy was on track to be the first black President until the Iraq war. For whatever reason, he made a huge blunder there that cost him his career. I'd like to think that he was swindled, but maybe he just made a mistake.

It's funny, but for all the talk of left/right polarization and how Obama was the solution - which he clearly isn't, even though I tend to agree with him on many things - Powell could have certainly been the bridge.

This is one of the only 'leadership' presentations I feel offered my anything worthwhile. It's nice to know there are people in power who think like this and it's even nicer to hear them share it.

so is he a sociopath, loser, or clueless?

Sociopath manipulated into a clueless role by greater, literal sociopaths...

No, just someone who deemed it suitable to present to the UN security council false intelligence based on biased, unconfirmable sources, to justify invading a sovereign country.

This is not a baseless accusation, since he has admitted it fully himself; nor does it necessarily invalidate his lessons on leadership. It is, nevertheless, a fact to keep in mind when reading anything he has written.

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