Political Leadership: Innovators (Charles de Gaulle & Mikhail Gorbachev) 4/5

Gorbachev

In late April, 1986, reactor number 4 at Chernobyl exploded.

The effect was catastrophic. Not only on lives and buildings, but also on the health of the USSR.

General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, in seeing the devastation, realised that incompetence and failure was rotting away at the Soviet Union, and that far-reaching changes were needed in response.

But his subsequent reforms, instead of liberating the  nation, instead hastened its decline.

Gorbachev lost control of events. His innovative spirit ended in failure. He, like all his fellow innovator-leaders, hoped he could lead his community into a better future. Some innovators succeed, some fail. But they all try. 

Political Leadership: Philosophers (Abraham Lincoln & Xi Jinping) 2/5

About two hours into the film Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis stands up and speaks. He rises from the Cabinet table, looming over his colleagues. They are hesitant and divided, unable to outlaw slavery in Congress.

'Buzzards guts, man.'

Abraham Lincoln has run out of patience. 'I am the President of the United States' he thunders, 'clothed in immense power! You will procure me those votes.' 

Lincoln understood he, as the President, couldn't shape Congress's passing of laws. 

But he also understood that being President still gave him large informal powers and levers to influence the final vote.

Such is the philosopher-leader, who recognises the powers and responsibilities that surrounds them, before using them to maximum effect. They aren't always successful, but when they are, their impact is vast. Let's take a closer look.