I couldn't allow this thoughtful post to go by without comment. I'd like to take a more hopeful look at leadership if I may.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm an executive coach, and I will admit that my observations are anecdotal. But there are good men and women out there, doing the right things and leading their organizations and communities in the right ways, against unbelievable odds.

What I see is the press focusing on greed and negativity - i.e., "empty suits".

Yes, there are tragedies. Madoff is one of many (and it is unfortunate that his case is particularly spectacular).

But lets turn our focus to the leaders who trudge through the crap every day. Those who truly care about their work and the people who are in the trenches. They are out there, sacrificing daily for "the greater good".

If we look hard enough, we will find them. And I'd like to believe that they outnumber the empty suits.

Thank you Mary Jo. You make a good point. There are a lot of leaders doing the work of leaders day after day and they get little if any notice at all. Of course, that is what a great leader does. They’re not in it for the attention. Unfortunately, it is usually when they go astray that they get noticed. However, for some time we have had a leadership problem that has finally reached epidemic proportions. The current crisis has just exposed it. And it needs to be exposed. It needs to be examined because for too long, we have been focused on the wrong things. This needs to be identified, weeded out and rectified.

While I am still trying to fathom the Madoff spectacle, I agree with Mary Jo - and, would add that it always has been and always will be front line leadership that makes stuff work.

Thanks for the reminder that the common distorted notion of leadership - forture, fame and power - is not and has not been serving us well. The idea that the real reward of leadership is in the well-being and success of others needs to be revived. The writings of Max DePree and Robert Greenleaf, business leaders who understood this, should be read again. It may be that we will emerge from this crisis of leadership with a new understanding of the leadership responsibility to advance the public good.

tom@leadingtoserve.com

When I read the term "empty suits", I was reminded of the children's fable about the King who wore no Clothes. You know the story where the King was tricked into believing that he was wearing a beautiful gown of Gold because no one had the courage to tell the king that he had been tricked until a small child blurts out that "he is naked" and everyone began to laugh. Just like that story, we have been complicit in allowing this "Age of Empty Suits" because we have allowed it to take place and that includes everyone from every other so called Leader today to CEO's to Boards of Directors to Government Regulators to Politicians to the Media to the General Public. Until we learn to take responsibility for our part; we will continue to see it happen again and again.