Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 10/07/1996 All articles from this issue

Nation 'void of leadership,' Stanford provost tells Los Altos foundation

printer friendly version

By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

There is a vacuum in our leadership today, according to Stanford University provost Condoleezza Rice. "We don't have anyone like Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Jefferson to lead us. It's a tremendous void," she told the Los Altos Community Foundation Sept. 28 at its fifth annual brunch in the Los Altos Golf and Country Club.

The foundation used to be called Los Altos Tomorrow, but the name was perceived as confusing and founder Roy Lave said people didn't know what it meant. So the name was changed to Los Altos Community Foundation. More than 130 residents of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills attended the brunch and listened to Rice, Stanford University Provost, speak about leadership qualities.

"Leaders are made and not born," Rice said. "They always look better in retrospect than they do at the time. Leaders come out of a set of norms and they don't stand out at the time you like to think."

Rice said a good example would be Thomas Jefferson. He was a terrible speaker and mumbled. He sent in his state of the union address and didn't speak to the congress. Can you imagine Jefferson in today's presidential race the way the media works today?

Roosevelt made his name by eating small countries south of us, according to Rice. He was terrible with animals and the media would expose him for mistreating animals today.

"Great leaders are trapped in a point of time," Rice said. "There was an extraordinary group of leaders at the end of the cold war. But they all had their faults. Margaret Thatcher was a very strong character and her leadership came from fear. Mikhail Gorbachev mumbled, but he was optimistic and George Bush was not a great speaker, but he was as tough as nails in a nice way. Their leadership was not a flair because they all worked harder than anyone else. Leadership is hard work."

Another leadership quality according to Rice is optimism. A leader has to see a solution before it appears.

"There is a soft side to leadership. Leaders don't have to like each other but they have to work with each other," Rice said. "I was taught that personality does not matter and the worst thing a president can do is become a personal friend with another leader. I don't buy that because you have to build on relationships before you ask for something hard.

"Leaders cannot do it alone. In a complex organization you need to have leadership on many different levels. Local leadership is an undervalued part of the solution. You have to know strategies and have each person accept the responsibility in their own way. This brings leadership back to the human scale."

Rice mentioned that leadership in Russia today is a real problem. Yeltsin is a flawed leader because he doesn't like the hard work of leadership. He has spent no time institutionalizing his own power.

On the other hand, Alexander Lebed, the security adviser, and Viktor Chernomyrdin, the prime minister have.

In addition to being provost at Stanford University since 1993, Rice is also professor of political science.

She is a native of Birmingham, Ala. and received her Ph.D. from University of Notre Dame in 1975.