How to Squander Your Leadership Position
As if a year with William Kristol on the op ed page of the New York Times wasn’t bad enough, now they’ve hired conservative pipsqueek Ross Douthat. At least Kristol had some life experience to draw upon.
If the liberal-leaning paper is seeking that elusive “balance” thinking it will attract more readers onto its old media ship that’s listing dangerously in these choppy new media seas, they should think again. First of all, liberal columnists to a fault already explore all sides of any issue they are writing about. They love being provocative and stirring up debate. Second, if the Times’ core readers are to the center-left, well, maybe they ought to concentrate on doing a really great job of appealing to them rather than alienating them.
I’m afraid that with the selection of Douthat, whose column today suggests the Republicans might have been better off today had Dick Cheney been their 2008 presidential candidate, they’ve made themselves an easy target for the likes of Linda Hirshman, Huffington Post’s new Douthat Watch columnist.
Douthat is no match for Hirshman. He might as well pack it in now.
But what’s more important from a leadership perspective is that the Times take note of the caustic but very accurate cautions in Hirshman’s critique. Let them try being true to themselves rather than catering to the self-righteous right and maybe they might still be around as the vaunted paper of record in a few years.
INTENTIONING
Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good
The new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.
We squander our leadership position when we forget the adage “to thine own self be true.”
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.
3 Comments
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Gloria Feldt, you are a hypocrite. I just listened to you on the O’Reilly Factor with Laura Ingraham. You were asked about the vicious attack by MSNBC host Michael Musto on Miss California Carrie Prejean for expressing her belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, when she said:
“I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage and, you know what, in my country and my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anyone out there but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman.”
Regarding Musto’s comments, you said “I think that Musto was over the top. Let me say I am not defending what he said.” Yet you went on to say “I think that what Miss Prejean needs is perhaps a heart transplant rather than the beast impants that she had paid for by the pageant.”
You claim that “feminism is about equality and justice.” If Musto were to express support for same-sex marriage and Prejean had attacked him using Musto-like tactics, Musto would be viewed as the victim and Prejean’s hypothetical verbal attack would almost qualify as a hate crime in this country. But when Prejean expresses her honest beliefs when asked a direct question in a public forum, she’s attacked by Musto, and you suggest she needs a heart transplant. Where’s the equality and justice there?
Your clearly are putting your political position in support of gay rights ahead of being a proponent for women’s rights to exercise freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
How appropriate it is that you have this article “How To Squander Your Leadership Position” on your blog.
I repeat, Ms. Feldt, you are a hypocrite.
Hi New Guard,
What Musto said was despicable. But as I also noted, Carrie herself realized that she had hurt him and he reacted accordingly. Again, I am not justifying what he said or the way he said it; however, I have come to realize over the years that gay people deserve the same respect and rights that the rest of us have. So while Carrie certainly has the right to her opinion against same sex marriage, many of us believe that is not a righteous or just position to hold.
Where leadership comes into this is that a leader must stay true to his or her convictions. So in that sense, Carrie is exerting leadership by becoming a spokesperson for the anti-marriage equality organization. I just think she is leading in the morally wrong direction, and thus it is my obligation to say so.
Where does feminism come into the equation? As I said, feminism is about justice and equality for all, not just women. Feminists have fought for abolition and racial justice, for example, because we know that as long as any group is oppressed, any of us could be oppressed, So because I am a feminist, I often come to the defense of others who are or have been oppressed. See Thomas’s comment below too.
I figure that a positive comment would be something helpful. I, contrary to the previous statements, feel that you adequately portrayed what feminism is actually about. People seem to have forgotten the true ideals of feminism. They automatically feel that because male commentators made rather vulgar comments regarding a female, any feminist would roll over and defend her, but you showed that feminism is about ensuring the equality of all people. Not solely defending someone because they are a women, because that in itself would be an idea that is contrary to the feminist movement, and this is coming from a student at one of the only all-male colleges in the country. Heaven forbid you judge someone on their ideas instead of their gender.