Maybe I' m too "old school," but it seems to me there is a dearth of leadership right now. When I listen to a Mitt Romney, John McCain, Hillary, or Al gore, I just don't hear that strong sense of vision........that passion to be able to get people to commit 100% and take the necessary action to see that vision become a reality. When JFK was guiding us through the Cuban Missile crisis during those 14 scary days back in October 1962, that passion was contagious and my friends and I had it. We were ready to do whatever was necessary. We were ready to go. Great leaders excel in that kind of communication and motivation. They instill confidence and enthusiasm. As well, they demonstrate integrity on a consistent basis. JFK instilled that confidence and passion. I doubt Al Gore could do that for me. Rudy Giuliani? Maybe. Bill Frist? Never. The late Paul Wellstone perhaps could do it. John Kerry could not under any circumstances. When I lived in Massachusetts, the late Lenny Zakim (a lifelong campaigner against racism and for whom the new bridge in Boston,The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, is named) and Paul Tsongas were two leaders who led by example. My heavens what great leaders they were. And for anyone who does not know what Lenny stood for, I urge you to find out.

Just where are the great leaders? The Walesa's, Thatcher's, Ronald Reagan's; the Winston Churchill's, the Golda Maier's, the Sadat's? Where is Mandela, Biko, de Klerk, Gandhi, Pope John Paul 11, Harry Truman. Generals MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Schwarzkopf. Where are the Glover Johns's, Chesty Puller's and George Patton's....and Admiral Nimitz? Shirley Chisolm, Margaret Sanger, and Martin Luther King? Lee Iacocca and Pete Rozzelle. TR, FDR and JFK? Billy Graham. Lombadri and Auerbach? And the list goes on. Curiously, why is it so easy to go back in the past and pick out such names but so difficult to find their current counterparts? Perhaps we don't know what to look for.

In any organization, a leader's actions set the pace. Such behavior wins trust, loyalty, and ensures the organization's continued vitality. One of the ways to build trust is to display a good sense of character composed of beliefs, values, skills, and traits. Lee Iacocca, who led Ford and brought Chrysler back from the brink, once said, "The speed of the boss is the speed of the team." If the leaders don't do it, do not expect the team members to do it. Chesty Puller walked the talk. So did his men. Greenbay Packers, under Coach Vince Lomdardi, would do anything to win his praise. It was called mutual respect.

These leaders didn't pontificate; they led by example...........they led by having the aforementioned ingredients of values, traits, beliefs, and skills. Arguably, President William F. Clinton was a chief executive who produced rock solid results, but did he demonstrate integrity on a consistent basis? President Richard M. Nixon's ability to be visionary is historically manifest but he too tragically stumbled along the way.

In their work "Leaders," researchers Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus conclude, "Leaders......consolidate or challenge prevailing wisdom. In short, an essential factor in leadership is the capacity to influence and organize meaning for the members of the organization." They continue, "Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing. The difference may be summarized as activities of vision and judgment -- effectiveness verses activities of mastering routine -- efficiency." In this sense, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are surly great leaders of today, for they created technical models that provided a focus for rapt attention. Bennis and Nanus go on to describe leaders as "changing the basic metabolism of the organization." Lee Iacocca changed the metabolism of Chrysler in plain sight.

Respected business lecturer Tom Peters wrote that leaders, "must create new worlds. And then destroy them; and then create anew ('Thriving On Chaos')." Interestingly, Peters defines visions as aesthetic and moral -- as well as strategically sound, which, of course, would eliminate Hitler's quest of the world as being a vision. Martin Luther King had a vision that was not only proclaimed, but was lived convincingly and was an exemplar of the moral process. MLK quite literally walked the talk. Pete Rozzelle had a vision for the National Football League and he influenced those around him to carry out his vision. He took the league to higher levels. Ella Grasso, first woman elected state Governor in her own right (Connecticut), shut that state down during the Blizzard of 78. It was a decisive action by a great leader.

How do today's leaders stack up on the leadership index? The McCain's, Hillary's, Biden's, Frist's, Tommy Frank's, Wes Clark's, Lieberman's, Mitt's, Judd's, Jeb's, and so many others. Does our own Senator Sununu have what it takes to become a great leader? Just maybe. Does Hillary? Time will tell.

And what about today's business leaders? We have Carol Bartz, Robert L. Johnson and Muriel Siebert. Michael Dell, the Wyatt's and the Wrigley's and they are darn good.....but where are the Lou Gerstner's, Jack Welch's Harold Geneen's and Lee Iacocca's? The Hewlett's and the Packard's. The Ken Olsen's, Lawrence Bossidy's, An Wang's and IBM's Watson's? The Land's and the Eastman's. Today, an alarming number seem to be doing the "Corporate Perp Walk" on television, slurping excessive pay at the corporate trough, or playing insider tips on the stock market. Some are even called "Celebrity CEO's" as if they were movie stars or super athletes. How nauseous is that? Business ethics seems to have become an oxymoron. Today's corporate leaders seem to be saying, "do as I say, not as I do." Their obscene compensatory behavior is hardly the stuff of leadership or character. Thankfully, we have the Gates, Jobs and Buffets, but there are too few like them. Regrettably, the period 2001 through 2004 may go down as the period of great corporate accounting scandals and that is just plain shameful.

In sports, what ever became of the Larry Bird's, Y.A.Tittle's and Bobby Layne's who would take their bloody lumps and get up ready for more instilling in their team mates a sense of dedication seldom seen these days. That was "old school" leadership.Today's leadership seems to be personified by doing the boogaloo in the end zone after a touchdown.

Closer to home, how does one recognize or find a leader? Acknowledging that no one is perfect, what are some traits to look for? What about those special kinds of leaders right here in the Mount Washington Valley? Or in New Hampshire. Maybe they will possess some of the following:

Personal ethics and integrity. "Relativity applies to physics, not ethics." Albert Einstein

Courage.....the willingness to take risks and be accountable for the outcome. "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow." Mary Anne Radmacher

Inspires and motivates......nothing is as contagious as genuine enthusiasm. "If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm." Vince Lombardi

Committed, dedicated and cool under pressure.......inspires confidence. "Dedication is not what others expect of you, it is what you can give to others." Unknown source

A desire to envision and create. "A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown." Denis Waitley

The ability to prioritize. "If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's important and then give it all you've got." Lee Iacocca

A genuine desire to help others succeed. "The more I help others to succeed, the more I succeed." Ray Kroc, Founder of MacDonald's.

Decisiveness. "If I had to sum up what makes a good manager, I'd say decisiveness.....in the end you have to set a timetable and act." Lee Iacocca

Know anybody like this in New Hampshire? I'll bet they are around; the trick is to find them. One particular man I believe exemplified the very essence of leadership was the late Col. David. H. Hackworth, who was working on a book about "Leadership" when he died last year. His cause of death was a form of bladder cancer now appearing with increasing frequency among Vietnam veterans exposed to the Agents Orange and Blue defoliants. He spent more than 50 years on the many different battlefields, first as a soldier, then as a writer, correspondent and sharp-eyed critic of the Military-Industrial Complex and of the many generals he dismissed as "Perfumed Princes." After an interview in 1971 on ABC's "Issue and Answers" in which he called Vietnam a "bad war," and predicted that Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese within four years, he became the only senior officer to sound off about the Vietnam War. He then retired from the Army and later became a powerful voice for military reform. Said Roger Charles, president of Soldiers for the Truth, "everything he did in his retirement was to try to give the young kids that our country sends to bleed and die on our behalf a better chance to win and to come home."

Before he took ill, he was frequently seen on cable television during the early days of the war in Iraq. Early military setbacks convinced him and other retired military leaders that the Bush administration, some of whose backers sold the War as a "cakewalk," hadn't sent enough troops to put down Iraqi resistance. He was one of the earliest to question whether the administration planned well enough to achieve a decisive military victory and to keep the postwar peace. Some of his quotes about Donald Rumsfeld are indeed eyepopping!

For those interested, a profile of Col. Hackworth appears in the book, "Leadership: Past, Present & Future," written by Carlos M. Rivera less than two months before his death. The book deal with the four values a true leader has: "courage, perseverance, communication skills and teamwork."

Col. Hackworth, by the way, was put in for the Medal of Honor three times. The last application is currently under review at the Pentagon. He was twice awarded the Army's second highest honor for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, along with 10 Silver Stars and eight Bronze Stars. But when asked about his many awards, he always said he was proudest of his eight Purple Hearts and his Combat Infantryman's Badge. As with Lenny Zakim, I urge our young people to do a little research on the WEB or at the library and find out about such leaders who are so very worthy of our knowledge, if not emulation.

"Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions." Harold S. Geneen

Ted Sares, PhD, is a private investor who lives and writes in the White Mountain area of Northern New Hampshire with his wife Holly and Min Pin Jackdog. He writes a weekly column for a local newspaper and many of his other pieces are widely published.

His works focus on issues and themes dealing with socio-political topics, business and economics in which he advocates a free market approach to capitalism, patriotism, and matters dealing with individual freedom.They are frequently inspirational in nature and sometimes reflect the Objectivist philosophy of novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. He also writes short stories that feature ironic and surprise twists.