Dear Reader,

A couple of further thoughts have been rattling around in my brain since my last note, where I gave some tongue-in-chief advice about leadership. For what it’s worth:

Leaders, like all people, have strengths and weaknesses. Some are better suited to certain challenges, less suited to others. There is the leader, for example, who can be a competent steward in times of stability and prosperity, but is easily overwhelmed by crisis. There is also the leader who is lackluster when things are going well, but shines in crisis. Voters distinguish these things, correctly or not. Winston Churchill, after all, was famously rejected by voters in peacetime after helping save the planet from fascism in wartime.

Consider what kind of leader appears to shine in a crisis. Often the qualities that attract praise in the most difficult times are ones that citizens otherwise might find off-putting. We may not appreciate the micro-managing, overbearing, bull-headed, autocratic control-freak in normal times. But in a full-blown crisis, especially an existential one, if the leader shrewdly manages public perception, people will cheer and they will follow. And if such a leader can temporarily suppress his natural narcissism in favor of conspicuous humility, the suffering populace may even swoon.