It takes courage to rise above mediocrity. Most leaders, by the very fact they’re in the position, have initiated acts of courage to get to where they are.
And yet many leaders end their affair with courage as soon as they reach their desired place at the top. After all, risks are required to attain power. But it’s the status quo that enables you to keep it.
Australia has reached a state of gutless mediocrity. The ‘new normal’ is a normal that’s simply seeing us plodding along: in business, and certainly in politics. Those is the highest positions of power are so set on retaining such power that they’ll do everything possible to avoid a strategic direction that risks things veering off course.
Of course there are exceptions to this. And there are certainly businesses that are bucking the trend — they tend to be driven by entrepreneurial individuals who have little to lose and no desire to fit within the existing system. They’re eating into the profits of larger, more established corporations, and forcing those in boardrooms to sit up and take notice.
We even have a business term for creating products and services that ignore the normal. We call this ‘disruption’, when really it’s simple innovation. We call these individuals courageous and daring, when really they’re doing what any leader should.
Right now, there is no greater example of leadership mediocrity than the very individuals who technically hold the most power: the Abbott Government. We have a prime minister so concerned about losing power that he’s willing to allow his time in power to be meaningless. He has demonstrated this perfectly this week by announcing a pathetic target for reducing carbon emissions that attempts to prove he’s at least doing something, while still appeasing the climate deniers. It’s a target that puts us behind much of the rest of the developed world, and one that experts agree will not prevent a dangerous two degree rise in temperatures.
Abbott did it again on the marriage equality debate. In attempting to sidestep Warren Entsch’s move to speed up legislation on the matter, Abbott claimed the policy should be decided by the ‘Coalition’ party room. He brought in the staunchly anti-marriage equality Nationals to ensure the government would be forced to oppose the measure.
Another great ‘status quo retaining’ trick that’s favoured by leaders like Abbott is to claim debate on matters like marriage equality and MPs’ entitlements distract from other, more important issues. It’s wasting valuable airtime, they say. It’s getting in the way of real policy matters, like the economy! they say. Perhaps such arguments would hold water, if those making them could demonstrate a capacity for speaking up about anything else of much substance.
Meanwhile, when the voting public get too vocal on its demands for change — as we have done over MPs’ entitlements in recent weeks – simply establish a review. That’ll put the matter to bed for a good six months, by which time it’s hoped the public will have moved on and forgotten what the fuss was about. Make it a future problem, perhaps then a less mediocre leader will come along and actually attempt to fix things.
All of this leaves Australia in a state of paralysis. Nothing moves. Nothing changes. The status quo continues. People keep plodding along.
We like to presume those who pursue leadership do so because they want to make meaningful change, but witnessing mediocre leaders makes that difficult to believe. Or is it that power simply corrupts any initial desire to do something great?
If there’s ever been a time to get moving it’s right now. Five million jobs are expected to disappear over the next ten to fifteen years, according to a recent report from CEDA. The mining boom is coming to an end. Rather than mourning these losses, we should be acknowledging the opportunities. We should be establishing the infrastructure to best enable the mass take up of new skills.
We have an ageing population that will not only start to retire in increasingly greater numbers, but also require greater care and services. We’re seeing continuous technology evolutions that are changing the ways we work and behave. Work is shifting from a place we go, to a thing we do – something many of us are looking to pursue on our own terms. The number of startsups in Australia is expected to double in the next ten years. Many will fail, but some will succeed in completely changing their industries.
There are many opportunities for leaders who want to do more than just step up.
Meanwhile, 50% of the population is still not being utilised to its full potential. We have so-called systems of merit in place that for some reason only see merit in those who’re while and male.
That would be the same system of merit that has put us in our current position: a state of gutless mediocrity.
Many laugh and joke about being internationally “embarrassed” for Australia given its current leadership. And yet the current state continues. It’s like we’ve simply accepted the ‘new normal’ is no longer new, but rather the only kind of normal we can ever expect of our leaders. We’ll just joke and despair about it on social media.
Really, our best hope is in these so-called ‘disrupters’. Those who’re innovating to create something greater than what we have today. Changing how we work, how we travel, how we live and play. Our politicians must keep up, or otherwise get out of the way.
Those leaders who’re happy to continue their gutless mediocrity are taking the biggest personal risk of all — the risk of becoming obsolete and irrelevant.