Leadership: and the absurd Euro debacle

Published: 2011-10-03   please add a comment below

As a humorist once put it: even a group of anarchists appoints a leader. Your local sporting club, the place where you work and your national government each has a president, CEO or similar. He or she listens to input from committee members, major stakeholders or cabinet colleagues and then takes the tough decisions – and drives things forward. Everywhere, that is, except in the Euro zone. It’s run by a committee – and each member has a different personality and agenda. For a bit of fun, here are some of the Euro committee members – and, at the end, there’s a quiz. So, be sure to read right through and take the test.

• Nicolas Sarkozy, one-time lawyer, is president of France. He’s hyper-active, likes to impress, enjoys good things (does three wives count?) and promises more than he achieves. He’s French – and likes you to remember that. His country still pretends to have the grandeur of Louis XIV and Napoleon. Its banks hold lots of Greek and other Euro debt.
• Angela Merkel was a scientist and is now Germany’s chancellor. She wears sensible shoes and believes in good financial and domestic housekeeping. She once remarked that she was probably the most boring person Mr Sarkozy had ever met. Germans work hard, take almost everything seriously and export huge quantities of high quality products.
• Silvio Berlusconi, a billionaire media tycoon, is President of Italy and plays Don Giovanni in the country’s national opera. He doesn’t take anything seriously – particularly the law. Some Italians are embarrassed but not many. Italy is wonderful but hasn’t lived within its means since Roman times. Silvio and Mrs Merkel are not Facebook friends – at least not yet.
• Georgios Papandreo, Prime Minister of Greece, was born in the US and studied economics there – but not housekeeping. He presides over an untidy, debt-ridden economy and its citizen have no desire to work past middle age or to produce more olive oil. They feel the Euro zone owes them regular handouts. Mrs Merkel and others, please note.
• José Luis Zapatero, another lawyer, is Prime Minister of Spain – the country that invented the Inquisition and the siesta. Many Spanish youths are on permanent siesta – in part due to antiquated labour laws. Mr Zapatero is less known than some of his Euro colleagues but he is a frequent customer of the European Central Bank.

I won’t add more names since the point is clear already: they’re an odd lot. And, no-one’s in charge. The European Commission certainly isn’t and its lengthy and opaque rules and regulations on things like the European cabbage trade are hardly encouraging.

So, here’s the quiz question: which Euro leader is most like you? In your organisation, are you the problem, the joker, regulator, show-off or what? How do you help or hinder decisions? The Euro mess would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. But, if it drives you to reflect on your behaviour, then you would be heeding Rahm Emanuel’s advice (to Barack Obama) to never waste a good crisis. OK then, what’s your answer? Write it down – including the new actions you need to take! After that, please go upstairs. Mrs Merkel is waiting to inspect your room.

Dr. Timothy Pascoe AM
PhD (Cambridge), MBA (Harvard), BE & BEc (Adelaide)
Creator, V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership^®