Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
Dwight Eisenhower
Laziness is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because you don’t want to do it.
Jeff Bacon
Admiral Spruance at the Battle of Midway. That was leadership.
Lt. Col. Hal Moore in the Ia Drang Valley. That was leadership.
General Petraeus in Iraq. Leadership.
Teaching my 2.5 year old how to pick up dog poop so someday I won’t have to…not so much.
There is a fine line between leadership and laziness. When you delegate, it is important to understand WHY you delegate. If it is to give your subordinates more responsibility and experience, that is leadership. If it is to avoid doing it yourself, that is laziness.
I had a hard time distinguishing between the two when I was in the military. That being said, it seemed that the really fun jobs tended to become projects requiring a more “hands on” approach. The nasty jobs became opportunities to get the junior officers “involved in the process.”
My daughter will one day be fully “involved in the process” of picking up dog doo. It will strengthen her work ethic. Make her stronger. Build character. Allow me to watch football games uninterrupted.
Does that make me a leader, or just lazy? I think another former President summed it up pretty well when he said, “It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?”
Ronald Reagan
Spoken like a true leader.
