Yesterday Gerald R. Ford died. He was the only person to get into the offices of vice president and president, without being elected.
Much of the late evening last night I listened to the coverage via CNN and MSNBC. I think the reason that I was drawn in so much was that he was so often referred to as a common person and a real person. He was also noted for being real and asking his team how they were doing, and being aware of what they may be going through as he and the country went through various issues. I like that. I admire that.
Filed under: Leadership, Life, Listening, Perspective
Gerald Ford seems also to have been someone who could stand for Service Leadership. He didn’t look for high office – although it found him. That was partly because he wasn’t Spiro Agnew , then because he most certainly wasn’t Richard Nixon. He just might have won the Presidential race, but President Carter had a somewhat similar character, and Ford had no such asset over him in the tight race which followed. Naturally, the young and liberal couldn’t see much beyond Ford’s apparent directness and black and white thinking at the time (I was one of them).
Curiously, a British business leader of similar characteristics died around the same time this week. That was Marmaduke Hussey, former chief of the BBC brought in by Margaret Thatcher.
I see both men falling into the category of leaders we deserve, and am thinking of adding a theme of legacy of leaders we deserve on my Blog.