Big Smile, No Teeth: Good leadership is NOT about 'my country vs yours' or 'me vs you'

Some of the best pandemic responses came from countries with female leaders, including Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. — StarGraphic

With the American presidential election that happened last week (and might still be dragging on now, on Nov 9, 2020!), I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership. Clearly the role of leadership in government is to take care of the people. And when that doesn’t happen, people rise up, protest, and try to oust governments.

So then it would make sense that the best leaders are compassionate, have empathy, and listen carefully to the needs of others. But that isn’t what we’ve looked for in leadership in the 2000s. More and more, we the people are looking for who is going to be good for the economy because of the perceived link between GDP and the overall quality of life in a nation.