So, on my commutes back and forth between work, I try to listen to audio books since I don’t really make time to sit and read. One book that I’ve been listening to is George W. Bush’s, “Decision Points.”

One of the main take aways I’ve learned is that being the President of the United States is extremely demanding and that is an understatement! You and I have it easy and we get to be side-line critics. Mostly, we don’t even have the whole story to give credible context to the decisions a President makes. Our perspective is usually very limited and all we read is our favorite news outlet that scews the perspective. It has also deepened my respect for someone willing to do what a President does. I also greatly respect President G. W. Bush because of the obstacles he overcame, the challenges he met full on, and the standard of personal integrity he held himself to. It is a bit inspiring to try and be the leader George W Bush was and is. The amount of resolve, principle, discipline, diplomacy, and intentionality a person has to have to be the President of the U.S. is aw inspiring.

Another huge leadership takeaway that I’ve gleaned is that as a leader you have to vet and pay attention to those directly under you. Information gets filtered through that person when it comes to you. As a leader, your weaknesses will be exposed, and so to be a strong leader, you must understand yourself and know how to appropriately compensate for it. It is also amazing to see what happens when a leader tolerates dissention among team members. A leader must enforce and guard his team’s values and culture, otherwise, the team will make it themselves and it usually isn’t good.

Whether you liked him or not, agreed with everything or not, you and I do not have the leadership capacity he had. When we are given proper perspective on life, we grow and gain a deeper appreciation for other people’s situations.