David Friedberg on leaders vs. managers & the problem with career politicians
00:00:00.000 | If you think about the difference between a leader and a manager, a manager is someone who typically delegates responsibility and authority.
00:00:08.620 | A leader is effective at synthesizing multiple people's points of view and creates an opportunity, defines a vision, defines an objective that is the synthesis of all the people that report to him and for whom he is responsible or she.
00:00:26.140 | And I think what we've seen in California in particular, and really across leadership positions or governing positions across the country during this pandemic, is a failure of leadership.
00:00:36.380 | Because when times are predictable, if A, then B, it is easy to manage and it is easy to look successful.
00:00:44.140 | I delegate down to the person who knows best and they are responsible for the outcome and they do it well.
00:00:49.180 | Great. All I'm doing is pointing to the right person to run something.
00:00:52.760 | The pandemic is difficult and it is unpredictable.
00:00:55.960 | It requires the synthesis of economic information, social information, and health information.
00:01:02.280 | And more often than not, a person who typically acts like a manager points to the person they think should be in charge under the circumstance to make a decision.
00:01:10.620 | And that person is not equipped to synthesize the economic and social ramifications of the decision.
00:01:15.540 | So what we have seen during the pandemic is most often people in a governing position have pointed to the health officer or the medical person and said, you make the decision.
00:01:24.600 | And that person does not.
00:01:25.940 | And that person does not necessarily account for the social and economic ramifications of the decision they're making.
00:01:30.760 | A health person knows how to save lives.
00:01:32.820 | The best way to save lives is shut everything down.
00:01:35.260 | And so the test of leadership during this pandemic has been a test of synthesis and recommending an action that's associated with the understanding of the social, economic, and health implications of what's going on.
00:01:49.380 | And that's really where so many governing bodies and individuals have fallen apart during this pandemic.
00:01:54.780 | So I'm going to stop there.
00:01:55.720 | Thank you.
00:01:55.820 | Thank you.
00:01:55.920 | It's an inability to do that effectively.
00:01:58.340 | And I think that is what is needed going forward.
00:02:02.080 | It is a moment of test, it is a moment of truth about the difference between a manager
00:02:07.920 | and a leader.
00:02:08.920 | And we're seeing across the nation who is what.
00:02:11.840 | And I think it is highlighting why some folks may not be best suited to do this.
00:02:16.040 | The second thing I'll say, and I know I'm on a little bit of a diatribe, but the second
00:02:18.740 | thing I'll say is career po--
00:02:20.640 | We've been waiting for your diatribe, by the way, it took 19 episodes, go.
00:02:24.320 | Career politicians, I think, simply should not exist.
00:02:27.480 | If you go back to the origins of this country, right, having your place in government, and
00:02:31.900 | we talked about this over email, having your place in government was meant to be something
00:02:35.520 | that everyone was supposed to take their turn doing.
00:02:38.200 | And the people that were sitting in political seats, it was supposed to be the merchant
00:02:42.140 | and the local farmer and the banker, and we were all supposed to take our turn representing
00:02:46.860 | our communities, representing our people in government.
00:02:49.640 | And what we've seen is people who have made a career out of being a politician.
00:02:53.520 | And the result of that is that they're not going to be the same people that they were
00:02:54.300 | before.
00:02:55.300 | And the reason for that is that their job depends on them getting reelected.
00:02:57.860 | In order to remain in their career, they have to get reelected.
00:03:00.680 | And they ultimately end up making trade offs that don't necessarily represent the best
00:03:04.100 | long term interests of their community.
00:03:05.820 | And this is broadly true across nations across centuries.
00:03:09.180 | But it's particularly acute in the United States where we've seen such wealth creation
00:03:12.920 | over the last 250 years.
00:03:14.860 | And what's happened is when you have career politicians sitting in these seats for so
00:03:18.840 | long in an environment of severe wealth creation, you end up having governments that are ineffective
00:03:23.280 | and creating systems that are not effective.
00:03:24.280 | And so you have these people that fail us.
00:03:25.360 | And here we are.
00:03:26.440 | And what we need is to have someone go in that's not dependent on the traditional folks
00:03:30.940 | that get people elected and fund elections and result in reelections.
00:03:35.260 | We need someone that can go in as an outsider and make a change.
00:03:38.520 | And so my advocacy for what's needed in California, and I think nationally, and that's a longer
00:03:43.240 | conversation is to find those types of folks to come in and lead and be politicians that
00:03:48.720 | can take a leadership role, synthesize information and not be worried about the reelection cycle
00:03:53.340 | and not have anything to lose.
00:03:54.260 | related to a career in politics.