BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS WORD OF THE DAY: LEADERSHIP

BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS WORD OF THE DAY IS LEADERSHIP 

Do you consider yourself a good leader with good leaderhsip skills? Or to you prefer to leave the leading to someone else?

French translation is la direction, le leadership

Hello Darlings! Happy Wednesday!

So, today I have chosen the word LEADERSHIP as the word of the day for Business English Paris. How does this word translate in your language?

AMAZON

If we were to have this conversation about leadership, the question I would start out with would be as outlined above: Do you consider yourself a good leader with good leadership skills? How much experience have you had with leadership where you were the one at the helm? Do you like being in a leadership position or do you prefer to leave the leading to someone else?


I was just reading an article in Forbes called 10 Unique Perspectives on What Makes a Great Leader by Jeff Gleeson. In the article, Gleeson quotes Joel Farar of Farar Law Group "Great leaders make the hard choices, and self-sacrifice in order to enhance the lives of others around them.

First of all, do you agree with that statement? Is making hard choices the thing that defines what makes a great leader? Are there other things? Like what, in your opinion? What are the blueprints for great leadership?

For example, do you think your boss is a good leader? Why or why not? What are the qualities that your boss possesses that makes him or her a good or bad leader in your view?

Do you think people are born leaders or can this be taught and learned? Do you think your president is a good leader? At the time I am writing this post, Donald Trump is president of the United States. There is strong debate on whether he is a good leader or not. Many people on the left think he is a terrible leader and many people on the right think he is the second coming of Christ.

Also when I was in the process of writing this post, the coronavirus epidemic had not yet peaked in the United States. But the President came under strong criticism for vowing to "open up America" and return people to work to save the economy. Many saw that as a sign of very bad leadership.

I was not so sure how to interpret Mr Trump on this issue. It seemed he had a stack of very bad choices on his desk and he had to decide which was more important: the economy, or the health and wellbeing of the American people. It seemed such a clear choice to so many but to me, both choices were interconnected and I reluctantly agreed with Trump. But I did not say it out loud.

To me, a strong economy was good for the health of the American people. And the good health of the American people was good for the American economy. I totally understood how Trump was thinking. It was counterintuitive but he recognized that both he and the rest of the world's leaders had a big problem with the virus and it wasn't just the virus itself. It was the global DEPRESSION that would follow this shut down of the global economy when everybody was sitting at home playing on their Nintendo. He also recognized that there were other ways to handle the problem that may have been unpopular, but given a chance could probably have worked. For example, the highly contagious nature of the disease and the fact that it disproportionately affected the aged population was very good data that could have been used to formulate a win win strategy for all.

Trump, I think, was thinking like a businessman who wanted to win at any cost. That is his leadership style: win, or die. There are drawbacks to that kind of thinking. But great gains as well. His hunch was that there was an anti-malaria drug that was seeing some good results in other parts of the world; also, most of the young people in the country had a good level of immunity against the disease and were asymptomatic; thus, masks could be mandated in the public sphere and in workplaces till a vaccine was developed; further, exposure to the virus would build immunity in people over time; finally, having an entire world at home not working was fucking crazy; the young generation would be digging out of the resulting global depression for decades after the quarantine. Then you have the deficit, the need to raise taxes to pay for the quarantine bailout....etc.

Trump wanted to roll the dice and think out of the box for a solution to a very big problem. People thought he was the Devil. They did not appreciate his version of "leadership."

To open up America would therefore have meant that the aged population's very life and existence would be threatened. But what if there was a way to quarantine and protect Americans over a certain age and yet open up America in order to safeguard the future wellbeing and welfare of younger Americans? What if certain types of masks and over the counter medications could allow younger, healthy Americans to reduce the risk of contagion of a disease that was deadly for a proportionately small part of the overall population - and return to work in order to save the economy, while as the same time protect the aged from getting infected? What if the global panic had been...unnecessary and the result of a sensationalized coverage by the international press? (These are rhetorical questions, but they beg asking.) What if? I think that is how Trump was thinking.

Of course these are very tough and unpopular question to even ask and most dubbed Trump a bad leader for suggesting ending the quarantine before doctors had assured him that the risk had been reduced to zero. Very few people saw him as a "leader" who had to make difficult choices for the benefit of all in the long run.

....like I said, I thought Trump was between a rock and a hard place, and in his place, if I were a leader, I am not sure that I would not have done exactly as he suggested doing. But leadership is a complicated thing. So thank god I am not a leader.

 What about you? What are your thoughts on leadership?

Note: During this time, I am offering strictly telephone conversation courses to respect the order of President Emmanuel Macron who has issued a directive as you know that the French population must remain under curfew for the next 15 days. If you would like to start or continue with English conversation lessons therefore, it will be strictly by telephone. I look forward to speaking with you, que même. I have noticed that I now have visitors from countries other than France including Germany, United Arab Emirites, Belgium, Spain and Oman. You are also welcomed to take English conversation with me if you like :) 


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