While leadership skills can be taught and learned through various training programs, it is generally looked at as being an an inherent skill. Few people have it. Even fewer are allowed the position to effectively lead, through a series of faults that they themselves may or may not have anything to do with.

The hope and change bandwagon sounds like a great wagon to climb aboard, especially after the previous eight year debacle, which as we all can clearly see, is extending its existence into ten years, perhaps even longer. Yet the bandwagon forgot its theme, expending all its energy in the election performance process, and now struggles to gain traction.

Whether it be mere aides or leadership managers, everyone brings their personal agendas, all firmly in place. The team flounders as the chosen ones struggle.

Professional sports teams are rich in the history of leadership, both failed and powerfully successful. Before the era of mega-salaries, management relied upon a sense of team loyalty. Talent was acquired, coached and developed, and the instillment of pride and team loyalty all combined to create winners. The successful team was a shining example of successful professional development. The players were team players and the leaders led with a quiet confidence, sure of themselves as well as their teammates. Team development meant that everyone got along to get along. The fans cheered.

With the advent of mega bucks, thanks to television and the creation of mindless thinking followers, superstars were created. Individual performance outweighed team success. Chest-thumping and taunting after every play, whether it be a strikeout, knocking a little white ball in a hole in the ground, a slam dunk, shock and awe, or knocking your opponent to the ground, all became “it’s all about me and ain’t I good.” Performance skills as a team became diminished.

Team management understood the control of marketing. Superstars were needed, even on mediocre teams. In order to pay mega salaries, revenue generation was dependent upon a huge fan base, both national and international in nature. Uneducated talent, with barely a grasp of the English language, became instant millionaires and billionaires. With them they brought their crime-riddled backgrounds. Rape, murder, extortion, gambling, drug use, and spousal abuse have become daily news for our latest and greatest leadership personalities. The fans cheered.

The good news is that, generally speaking, the greater your talents and superstar ego and fan base, the easier it is to get away with criminal intent, thereby keeping that chest-thumping desire intact. The fans cheer even louder.

Television has created teams within the large and small markets, a segregation based on communication. With few exceptions, the small markets are totally dependent upon those large markets. Like a magnet, the large market, with its infusion of unlimited cash, attracts talent, power, corruption, greed, and an unchecked gang mentality. For whatever reason, the small market allows itself to be gamed, duped by their own small market mentality.

Eventually, the small market - unable to fathom the ongoing riches associated with show time - begins to fracture and leaders begin to hear the howling of wolves. However, as is generally associated with losers, the timing is all wrong. The corporation has a brilliant design scheme in place.

America’s recent political history has provided us a classic study of the performance team. They led with lies and deceit and false bravado, barely able to spell leadership, much less understand its importance. We were given a puppet, wallowing in a mire of smirks and sneers and an inherent skill at failure, a classic schoolyard bully with severe learning issues. So much for professional development leadership skills.

Today, once again, America is being led. Not by a person with inherent leadership skills, but by a corporation based on lies, deceit, greed, power and a following of mindless thinkers. All of these factors, with few exceptions, merge and provide the chosen leader with little chance at success.

If one is going to assume a leadership position, then one takes responsibility. Not only for their own actions, but for the good of the group. The group being led recognizes and values good leadership. The leader is proactive, leading by example.

Although America is long overdue for a natural born leader to arise and lead by that example rather than shallow words, seemingly insurmountable obstacles are effectively in place. Effective leadership struggles, losing momentum by the day. The performance environment of the corporation is calculated, shrewd, and effective in its plan.