From Enron and WorldCom to Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War, this country’s business and political leaders have demonstrated spectacular leadership failures. The reasons and possible solutions shaped a fascinating give-and-take discussion among three distinguished panelists assembled in March at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to address “America’s Leadership Deficit.”

In his opening remarks, Professor David Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership at KSG, lamented the performance of Washington pols. “As a group, the people running Washington over the last twenty years have failed,” creating a backlog of major issues that will confront the next president, he said. “The four years after the current president leaves office will be among the most consequential we’re going to live through. The decisions we make, or don’t make, will be of enormous importance to American history for the course of the 21st century.”

It’s no wonder that the public sector is in such bad shape, observed HBS professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. “We’ve had 25 years of right-wing ideology saying that the only way to get elected is to run against government. Isn’t that ridiculous? There has not been sufficient value put on serving the public interest.”

Focusing his comments on the private sector, HBS professor Bill George noted that business leaders often are picked by the wrong criteria. “We mistakenly make choices based on charisma, image, and style when we should be choosing based on character, integrity, and substance.”

Business also suffers from using an outdated, World War II definition of leaders, said George, the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and author of a new book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership. “Leadership is not about getting people to follow you over the hill; it’s about empowering people to step up and lead at all levels,” he continued. “You can divide all leaders into two categories: the takers and the givers. We’ve been choosing the takers. We need to choose givers.”

Taking issue with Kanter’s critique of conservative ideology, Gergen opined that the nation’s leadership deficit is more of a generational than an ideological problem. The baby-boom generation of leaders grew up in the 1960s, when “there was no sense of common sacrifice,” he explained. “I think the group has become too self-indulgent. They became more takers than givers.”

Rising to her own defense, Kanter remarked: “I don’t think we have to wait for the right people to emerge. And I don’t want to write off the baby boomers.” The key to cultivating leaders is to set the right expectations, said Kanter. Increasingly, she sees this happening. “I think we are going to move into a time where idealism and hope will get more attention than greed and selfishness.”

The March 21 panel discussion, cosponsored by the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership and Institute of Politics, may be viewed at www.iop.harvard.edu/index.php. Click on “Forum Archive.”

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