Mustang, sally

One of Lee Iacocca's creations sits on a leafy lane not far from my home. Painted in fairly disgusting colours, but otherwise in beautiful shape: a Ford Mustang from the early 1960s. Every time I see it, I remember how I used to dream of owning one. One day.

After Ford, Iacocca went on to head Chrysler, turning that also-ran automaker into a profit-making success. He has a new book, Where Have All The Leaders Gone?. In it he lists the 9 Cs of leadership, and as reproduced in the Hindustan Times (today Apr 25), they are:

1. Curiosity: Listen to people outside the "Yes, sir" crowd. Read voraciously.

2. Creative: Go out on a limb. Leadership is all about managing change.

3. Communicate: A simple one. You should be talking to everybody, even your enemies.

4. Character: Having the guts to do the right thing. If you don't make it on character, the rest won't amount to much.

5. Courage: Courage in the 21st Century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiation table and talk.

6. Conviction: Fire in your belly. You've got to really want to get something done.

7. Charisma: The ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him or her.

8. Competent: Surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Be a problem solver.

9. Common sense: Your ability to reason.

And this bonus:

The biggest C is Crisis. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory, or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself.

Apart from the Mustang, I particularly like points #3 and #5 above. Reminds me of this.

Whether it is our border or reservations or something else: How many of us can find that courage that isn't posturing and bravado?