Evaluating Leaders

Writing in CNNMoney, John Ryan of the Center for Creative Leadership gives some thoughts on evaluating presidential leadership. An excerpt:

From his years of holding top leadership positions in the U.S. Army and leading Allied forces to victory in World War II, Dwight Eisenhower became a master of working large organizational systems. He carried those skills into his presidency. There, he would gather exceptionally bright advisers with a wide array of viewpoints. They debated vigorously while he sat and listened. In developing national security policy, as scholar Fred Greenstein has recounted, Eisenhower had agencies draft competing policy recommendations that would then be subjected to extensive, no-holds-barred debate. In doing so, he built a reputation for reaching out to different sides, being comfortable with disagreement and ultimately getting disparate groups of people to work together.