Do strong leaders have weaknesses?

'Quamplurimi et quam aptissimi" (As many as possible of the very best)

Rizal Philippines
December 6, 2015

Do strong leaders have weaknesses?  Yes

1.  Their strengths can be their weakness.  What made them strong achievers could be their own undoing.  Achievers are usually demanding, goal driven,  nasty and over bearing and autocratic. Military leaders are such types of peoples and are misfits in the civilian world How could they be achievers if they are meek?  From about leaders

2.  Leaders are no angel nor are they saints.   If they were angels, they would accomplish nothing.   Saints have different places in history and religion.   Even biblical leaders were persons with great weaknesses. But we only remember their achievements

Even church leaders lately have been accused of several sins:   theft, malversation and sins of the flesh, whether they be with women, other men or young children.  So he who has no sins cast the first stone.

3.  We should focus on what the leaders can do and not what they are not supposed to do, or are irrelevant to the task at hand.  Many still admire John F. Kennedy despite his proclivity to beautiful things with skirts.  Another such man is Gen Ulysses Grant who seemed to have failed in everything he did, being a cadet at West Point, his family life,  in business he established.  He drank heavily, and when he was appointed as the Union Commanding General, by Abraham Lincoln, the President was criticized for appointing General Grant.  But he won the battles that he led.  Why would you appoint as commanding general who is a drunkard?   Lincoln even said he would ask for the brand of the wine of Grant, just to keep him winning battles for the Union. Peter Drucker prescribes we must focus on strength, rather than strengths in his book "Effective Executive"

And now we have a candidate who has solid achievements, but  who like the Leaders mentioned here has great weakness too:   womanizer, and cusses frequently.

What do you think?

JFK best speeches to help us gather our thoughts for the assignment

'Quamplurimi et quam aptisimi" (As many as possible of the very best)

Samples of Call to Arms Speeches by Great Men and Leaders

'Quamplurimi et quam aptisimi" (As many as possible of the very best)

God/Alla may move mountains and oceans, and cause earthquakes and typhoons

But speeches by great men and leaders changed the course of history.  Great moving speeches, call to arms etc, win wars, and change the destiny of nations.  We will practice this fine art. Prepare/make a draft now and  be prepared to deliver this two sessions from July 17, 2015

Famous JFK address - Ask not....

Famous Churchill speech

Famous Lines from Gen. Douglas MacArthur






"Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.

The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.

But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman."