Katrina and Three Leaders

The reports are horrible; the pain can be felt for miles. No end in sight. For many, hope now eludes them.

Three leaders are trying their best to catch up and struggling to get any control over all the forces working against them. In times like this, we see a leader’s strengths and weaknesses.

President Bush

The perception of the American people is that he has been too distant and not responsive enough. He will be in New Orleans today, Friday. Bush has not been responsive enough to this disaster. Why?

A leader needs to be the servant and the advocate, remember? His inability to be there immediately like he was during 911 has created a perception that he is distant and not responsive.

He may be working 20 hours a day to help get this situation under control. It doesn?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢t matter. The perception is not a result of all of the media spinning and all of the finger pointing. He is being perceived as ineffective because he was not there from the beginning.

He was quoted today by CNN.com as saying “The results are not acceptable. I’m headed down there right now.”

Too late. Perception is reality.

Ray Nagin

He is angry and losing control. His city is falling apart and he needs help. The help has been slow for reasons not currently understood.

That is not the point.

He has a right to be angry, frustrated, anxious, etc. He has been a servant and an advocate all week, until last night on a New Orleans radio station.

Last night the anger got the best of him and he started to lash out at everyone. He started to lose his credibility as a leader. People get worried when that happens. If a leader is lashing out at the President and the government and other authorities, people begin to lose faith. Last night he said:

“You mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can’t figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on man.” -source CNN.com

People need leadership, especially in a time of uncertainty and fear.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco

She is serving her people. She is being an advocate and an effective leader right now. Here were her comments yesterday. “I’m not going to stand here and play the blame game. We have a problem. Let’s get to the problem.”

See it? She said she is not going to stand here, which infers action. Then she states she will not engage in a gameof pointing fingers. She says very diretly that she knows that New Orleans has a problem. She concludes by saying lets focus on the problem and how to fix it and not the cause.

Kathleen Blanco is the Blogging Boss’s leader of the day!