"Mr. President: It's Not The Pay Records, 'It's Leadership!" Says Leadership Expert Brent Filson President Bush can redress a dismal performance on "Meet The Press" and at the same time score a leadership coup, according to leadership expert Brent Filson. Filson, founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc., a corporate leadership consultancy, says that the President should seize the initiative with his military service controversy by getting all records out immediately, not just the pay records, telling the truth about his military service and then using the bully pulpit of his office to deliver a heartfelt explanation of his actions. The issue is not the pay records or quibbling about when he served or didn't serve," Filson says, "The issue's his leadership. As a leader who holds others accountable for their actions, the question now is, 'does he hold himself accountable?' If he keeps evading the question, he'll be the second one-term Bush President." (PRWEB) February 12, 2004 President Bush has an opportunity to redress a dismal performance on Tim Russert's Meet The Press last Sunday and at the same to score a leadership coup, according to leadership expert, Brent Filson. Filson says that he should take the initiative with his military service controversy by getting all the records, not just the pay records, out immediately and then using the bully pulpit of his office to deliver a heartfelt explanation of his actions." "The issue is not the pay records or quibbling about when he served or didn't serve, the issue his leadership. As a leader who supposedly holds others accountable for their actions, does he hold himself accountable for his own actions? And leadership, because its so important to national security, is going to be the burning issue of this campaign. Bush has an opportunity to exhibit great leadership," says Filson who was a platoon leader in the Marine Corps. Filson, the founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc., a leadership consultancy, asserts that "from a leadership standpoint, President Bush's performance with Russert was nothing less than an embarrassment. He looked more like a college sophomore coerced to take a communications course instead of the leader of the world's most powerful nation. Instead of clearly, crisply articulating his positions, he was tongue-tied, evaded questions, seemed hesitant and nervous, and made vacillating arguments. Here's a man who's been accustomed to saying things speech writers put in his mouth before carefully chosen crowds, and it's coming back to haunt him. Being confronted by Russert, President Bush found himself totally out of his element and in psychological free fall, a leadership disaster.." Having consulted with literally thousands of leaders of all ranks and functions worldwide during the past 19 years, Filson says that Bush can come back from the communications debacle if he shows great leadership. "There's an unwritten leadership law: failure is opportunity. Look at Reagan after his disappointing performance in the first debate against Mondale. Reagan was just as tongue-tied, inarticulate, and bumbling as Bush. Yet Reagan got his act together and destroyed Mondale in the next debate. Bush can come back too. And a good start to make would be to take one specific initiative and show courage and leadership with it." That initiative, says Filson, should be linked to the controversy over his military service. "During the Russert interview, he said he would release the records, but Russert practically had to drag it out of him. A good leader would have pounced on the issue as an opportunity, said (before Russert did) "Let's make the records public", then after their release, gone on the attack. That would have shown him as decisive and honest. Nothing in those records is worse than his evading the issue. At the very least, he'll be showing courage, something he's asking the troops he's sent into Afghanistan and Iraqi to show each day." Filson concludes, "Obviously, Bush's falling poll numbers caused panic in the White House and prompted either Bush or his handlers to choose the Meet The Press option. Just as obviously, they went into it totally unprepared. Sure, there are people who will vote for Bush no matter how badly he performs. And there are people who would never vote for Bush no matter how well he does. When assessing an election calculus, you can ignore those two groups. But this is going to be an extremely close election, decided by a group who can't be ignored, the independent-minded voters who look carefully at the candidates leadership qualities. If Bush doesn't start projecting leadership in environments like Sunday's, his worst nightmare will be realized: He'll be the second, one-term Bush.
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