One of the things that saddened me a bit last year was the end of Tony Blair's career as a political leader. Not because I liked his policies or his decisions, but because it signaled the end of an era of political giants.In my own origin country of Australia we had Paul Keating, in the USA there was Bill Clinton and in the UK Mr Blair. What did these three characters have in common aside from their professed center-left political bias? They loved to win!
If you watch any of these three on the stump it was obvious that "they wanted it" more than the other guy. They almost willed victory at every turn. In fact it is arguable whether Mr Clinton's instincts in this aspect may even be partly responsible for his wife's predicament in South Carolina on the weekend.
Tony Blair was so focussed on winning and doing what he thought was the right thing that he faced numerous revolts in one of the British parliaments biggest majority in recent history, Mr Clinton negotiated to get his chosen legislation through an aggresively oppsed senate, and Paul Keating won the unwinnable election, against a driven and ideological opponent.
I was always impressed by all three of these guys when they were on the campaign trail. They never took a backward step, they never let anyone catch them with their guard down, and they always (ALWAYS) came out fighting.
Phenomenal stuff! So who are todays inheretors of this? Until recently there were not many. The new Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, has won over an electorate that was more bored than upse4t with the previous government. Not hard to do when your opponent is possibly one of the most boring men in recent Australian politics.
The UK have retreated into no-personality characters like Gordon brown. (Smart, probably honest, but dead boring) But then there the USA...
I have been watching this campaign, like everyone else, and I cannot help but be impressed by Barrack Obama. An incredible campaigner, he has added an element of spark to the current political season that I have not seen in a long time. He is starting to look like an incoming tide and you almost have to wonder whether the Republican nominee would have any chance of upsetting this wave of popular reaction.
So why so popular? No clue, not for me to speculate.. but I can see one thing very clearly.. he
wants it! He wants it very badly, and he is not afraid to show it!I saw his concession speech in New Hampshire, and this was what really got to me about the man. It was one of the most rousing and inspiring pieces of political oratory that I have seen in a very long time. There were no backward steps, no allowances for defeatist thinking, no remorse over the spilled milk of New Hampshire... just a relentless "yes we can" drive toward the future and a more positive state of thinking.
This drive to win is a powerful phenomena that sets up a forceful dynamic. Never stopping, never taking a backward step in the overall drive forward, never giving in to hopelessness, and maintaining the positive message at all times all the way through; something that can enhance the implementation of any consulting project. (Big or Small)
Particularly when you are driving for wide ranging user support of a new initiative, technology or process. Implementation is something I have been doing a lot of thinking about recently and something I am going to be posting a lot about here over the next few weeks. But for me, this is step one - if you don't believe it, get it, support it, and champion it - nobody else will!
