Monday, January 03, 2011

On Leadership: Mayor Booker


Let's start the new year with a talk about leadership.

You don't tell people you are a good leader.

You don't read books to be a good leader.

A parking space and titles do not make you a good leader.

Your power over others does not make you a good leader.

Your actions mark you as a good leader.

You don't have to wear a uniform to be a good leader.

The weather this December showed to a lot of localities the quality of the leaders they elected to office. It is easy to be a politician when things are easy and/or you control those things around you with an iron grip.

Life is what happens when you are planning other things, and the good Lord has other plans sometimes. Adversity demonstrates character to all who are listening.

Case in point - over the last week the Mayor of Newark, NJ - Corey Booker.
After a blizzard started blanketing the Northeast on Dec. 26, an event that earned the Twitter hashtag #snowpocalypse, Booker turned the microblogging site into a public-service tool. Residents of the city, which has a population of around 280,000, swarmed Booker's account (@CoryBooker) with requests for help, and the mayor responded. He and his staff have bounced around Newark shoveling streets and sending plows to areas where residents said they were still snowed in. "Just doug [sic] a car out on Springfield Ave and broke the cardinal rule: 'Lift with your Knees!!' I think I left part of my back back there," he reported in one message. One person let Booker know, via Twitter, that the snowy streets were preventing his sister from buying diapers. About an hour later, Booker was at the sister's door, diapers in hand.
...
Booker's frantic Twitter feed reads like an action novel. "I have a snowpocalypse crush on @CoryBooker," wrote one of Booker's million-plus followers. "He's like a superhero with a shovel." The mayor was out clearing snow until 3 a.m. on Dec. 28 before heading back out three hours later after a few winks. "This is one of those times you're just pushing," Booker told TIME while riding around Newark early Tuesday evening, anxiously awaiting a Twitter response from a Newark resident who said her 82-year-old grandmother was shut in by snow. A few minutes earlier, Booker, who played football at Stanford, helped dig out a New Jersey transit bus. "It's an endurance test." This is not the first time Booker has responded to distressed citizens on Twitter. He shoveled the driveway of an elderly man last New Year's Eve after the man's daughter tweeted about his predicament. He also hit the streets during snowstorms last February.
Leaders run towards the fire. They move towards the flooding. They attack in to the ambush. They solve problems - they don't react to them. They don't complain - they educate by their actions.

BZ Mayor - BZ.

10 comments:

MidMom said...

Very impressive.

In Chicago, municipal elections are held in late February, with run-offs in April.  Ever since a mayor lost in 1979 because of uncleared roadways, the city is downright AGGRESSIVE in clearing streets, making this election schedule VERY effective for snow removal!

Surfcaster said...

Good leasership.

We would have had the mayor throwing others under the bus.

Its just some friggin' snow! Take care of your family & neighbors, shovel, and put a set of road spikes where you cleared so body takes advantage of your #%&^@! work ;)

Surfcaster said...

<span>Good leasership.  
 
We would have had the mayor throwing others under the bus, not shoveling it out.  But he's a congreeman now, so he'll direct others to throw those same people under the bus.
 
Its just some friggin' snow! Take care of your family & neighbors, shovel, and put a set of road spikes where you cleared so body takes advantage of your #%&^@! work <img></img></span>

Salty Gator said...

It is good leadership but it is also a little bit of Nanny State at the same time...
The Mayor rolls up his sleeves, digs in, coordinates the action using social meadia.  PLUS.
The Mayor responds to people saying their relatives can't get out and get diapers / food.  PLUS?  Or how about WHY DON'T YOU GET OUT AND HELP YOUR OWN RELATIVES?!  Why do you depend on the mayor?  What about YOUR neighbors?  I know my neighbors and I take care of our older folks who leave nearby whenever it snows, or what have you.
Anyway, the Mayor is a stud for getting the job done.  I'm most impressed with his forward leadership and taking personal action to coordinate the action of people whose job it is to actually shovel the snow.  Everything else is nice, but LEADERSHIP is where it's at.

Anonymous said...

I am really happy to see that the people of Newark finally have a leader they can look to for hands-on community leadership.  These people have been taken advantage of by past administrations going back to the 60's.  Fixing Newark is a project that not many would undertake.  Too easy to look the other way and back out as so many have.     

OldCavLt said...

Perhaps the finest local political leadership I have ever seen.

ALL community leaders should emulate this type of approach.  Unfortunately, too often we're typically stuck with managers instead.

I, personally, salute you, Mayor Booker.  Well done.

OldCavLt said...

Perhaps the finest local political leadership I have ever seen.

ALL community leaders should emulate this type of approach.  Unfortunately, too often we're typically stuck with managers instead.

I, personally, salute you, Mayor Booker.  Well done.

campbell said...

Made my day to read this.  Thank you CDR.
Any chance this fellow has Presidential aspirations?

USMC Steve said...

This guy has learned a lesson that very, very few politicians have or will ever learn.  Lead by example and take care of your people.

LifeoftheMind said...

On the strictly political level I am not a backer of Corey Booker. He's a Democratic and there are to may other issues but I sure do hope that he gains more influence within his party and helps to shift the culture. On my side of the Hudson the closest to a hero is a City Councilman, Dan Halloran who s exposing the Sanitation Workers deliberately failing to clear the streets because they want more money. People died as a result.