Defective Leaders Rise and Fall Via Their Defects

Inadequate leaders do not rise by accident. The Great French Essayist Jean de La Bruyere expressed a similar idea in his satirical Caracteres: “Men fall from great fortune because of the same shortcomings that led to their rise” It is a comforting thought that flawed leaders will inevitably self destruct as Idi Amin of Uganda or Richard Nixon of America did for example.

Amin rose to power by overthrowing an elected government in 1971-he ran a military regime at his own whims, he then stupidly attacked Tanzania and gave the Ugandan exiles the golden opportunity to team up with the Tanzanian troops to over throw him as the International community watched by in poignant silence because they were too, fed up with the poor judgments of the dictator.

It is usually what leaders do to achieve their ambitions that render such leaders unfit in the end to bear authority. Richard Nixon’s Water Gate scandal struck him off his second term ambition. When ambitions get the better of defective leaders, they no longer have room to stop and think-they get lost in the temptation to sink giggling into the North Sea under the weight of their power corrupted judgment.

They temporarily become super energetic survivors, rat like in their energetic cunning; they grab all the best jobs for their cohorts, and very soon the populace begins to poke accurate fun at incumbents and the people in whom power lie soon begin to tell the difference between an able leader and those who have simply been propelled by unfortunate circumstances to rise above their proper level of capability as leaders.

The defects become overt, and either by revolution, the power of the vote, or some rage inspired assassination, they come tumbling down from power. Defective Leaders Rise via their Defects but these defects soon become the reason they lose power.