The leader next door

Confidence in the military comes easily because our soldiers care about something larger than themselves. Their work is not about profit, but duty and freedom; not about popularity (as is the case with media ratings, consumer rankings and political polls), but about the honor and security of America.

Cynicism about those in government, business and the media runs rampant, while Americans continue to hear heroic stories about military men and women, doing the work few in government, business and the media have done or likely would do.

In addition, perhaps we trust the military more because it delivers on its broad promise to the American people. We ask the military to keep us safe, and they deliver. We ask government to solve tough issues like lax regulation of Wall Street and government dithers. We ask media to shoot straight and then media bias, on all sides, is so evident. We ask big business to steward the economic promise of America and then find ourselves bailing out billionaires.

We trust military leadership because we know the military. My dad was a Marine, and my granddaddy was in the Air Force. My colleague's daughter serves on the USS Truman. Our recent window-repair man served in Iraq. A friend flew refueling tankers over Afghanistan. I don't know any Wall Street billionaires, and that is fine with me. I'll take the leadership lessons from a soldier, sailor, air man or Marine any day.

By Ed O'Malley

 |  November 2, 2009; 3:29 PM ET
Category:  Military Leadership
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Posted by: landre01 | November 2, 2009 11:28 PM
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