James Buchanan — Tip of the Week

On President’s Day, our 15th president, James Buchanan, rarely receives mention, unless in a footnote saying he’s long been regarded as the nation’s worst president. Thinking of President’s Day and Buchanan caused me to hatch this week’s tip.

Different people would undoubtedly give different reasons for Buchanan’s ranking. To  me, it has to do with the fact that while leaders are always needed in the highest positions, there are times — usually extremely bad times — when disaster will occur without leadership. That’s what happened with Buchanan.

He was president during the four years leading up to the Civil War. Buchanan seemed incapable of making the difficult decisions necessary to even try to prevent the war. Under his lack of leadership, the Civil War, our nation’s greatest tragedy, was inevitable by the time Lincoln became president.

Today’s circumstances aren’t as bad as those leading up to and surrounding the Civil War, but they are bad. As we survey the last four years or so, leadership was in short supply. Difficult decisions — in the political arena, the business arena, the employment arena, any kind of arena – weren’t made.

Leadership is imperative in all arenas now. If you have a chance to play a role in selecting someone to perform any job, focus on leadership qualities to make the selection.