Keeping Options Open and Principles Loose

There is much to be said for keeping one's options open but the habit does have its limits.

Predictability has beneficial effects. Followers are enormously reassured when they can predict, within a country mile or two, where the boss will be on most issues. They like to know how the boss would like things done even if no orders or instructions have been issued. There are advantages to clarity even if it narrows one's options.

Unfortunately, these days we often find that leadership positions are occupied by skillful handlers; people who can deftly dance around almost any subject. These smooth operators can switch positions without hesitation or embarrassment and then muster a level of passion that might lead on-lookers to believe the new position was long-held. "Those are my principles," Groucho Marx once quipped, "and if you don't like them. . . well, I have others."

These Leaders of Many Options have plenty of principles but the only one that seems unchangeable is their devotion to themselves.

Such individuals have always been with us. What is different, I believe, is the willingness of followers to rationalize such transformations. In the past, flip-flops - unless one was tucked within the mindless obedience of a Communist party cell - came with a price. People protested. Some noble souls even renounced their support. Leaders knew that they would feel some heat.

Nowadays, opportunism dresses up as pragmatism and pragmatism is applauded. It is so - what's the word? - sophisticated. People may have mocked the crudeness and rigidity of the old crew but their lack of dexterity had one virtue: When they said they would do something, you could reasonably expect that it would take place.