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January, 2002

All leaders understand, and shun, the lamentable consequences of neglect.

Consider this: Public monuments are never set up to honor someone who intended to do something.

Leaders act. Though they spend time in study and planning, they mostly act. For leaders, study and planning are a ramp-up for action, not a substitute for it.

Moreover, real leaders never let indecision lead to inaction. When confronted with several tough choices of action, they do not shrink back. They brace themselves, choose what they judge as the best way forward, and then set to work as best they can.

Sometimes great leadership means just this: doing the best you can with what you have. If you're climbing a mountain, you sometimes have to backtrack or surmount obstacles or thrash your way through tangled shortcuts - but as long as you keep moving upward, you'll reach the summit. The one thing you don't do is quit. Neglect - to do nothing - is the worst mistake of all.

Parent leaders, too, understand the consequences of neglect. They know they have a job to do - a change to effect - in the minds and hearts of their growing children. And they draw courage to act from foreseeing what awful things could happen to their kids if that job remains undone, if their children retain the flaws and selfishness of childhood into adult life.

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