If good leadership creates a successful organisation or a positive outcome to a challenging situation, then it’s fair to say that bad leadership becomes endemic and can often emerge as the root cause of failure.
Two iconic brands in Australia are at the moment in trouble because of leadership issues.
They are the Australian Labor Party and the National Rugby League.
Both are brands with significant history in Australia and both are symbolic of the roller coaster ride of success and failure.
Let’s start with the ALP.
As Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten continue to work their way around the country in some sort of internal election campaign, both would know that no matter who wins, there’s a strong likelihood that neither will lead Labor to the 2016 Federal Election.
A lot of water will cross under the bridge between now and then, and unless Tony Abbott proves to be a shambolic mess as Prime Minister, it is hard to see either Albanese or Shorten being the shining light that Labor desperately needs to win an election in three years.
Here’s the problem – Labor stuffed up the course of time and right now is missing out on what should actually be a very prosperous time in opposition.
Julia Gillard should now be leading the Labor Party for the first time, and leading them to the 2016 election.
No matter how successful Tony Abbott is or isn’t, I doubt he could have stopped the juggernaut of publicity and positivity that would have surrounded the possibility of Australia’s first female Prime Minister being elected.
Labor should have left Kevin Rudd in charge for the entirety of the last six years – he probably still would have won in 2010, and while 2013 would have been a loss, history would at least have shown stability for the party and supporters could have talked about Rudd without bursting out into laughter given the shambolic way his leadership stop-started over the past six years.
Gillard would never have had the stigma of stabbing someone in the back to get the job surrounding her, and her tenure as Opposition Leader would have been long enough for her to connect to the electorate in a way she never did.
As much as Labor will forever have the right to claim it installed Australia’s first female Prime Minister, it will also have to live with the fact that it stuffed it up.
One gets the feeling that the next Labor Prime Minister is not yet in Parliament.
As for the NRL, it faces huge challenges ahead in terms of crowd numbers and overall respect from the fans, and I struggle to see how they will do that under the leadership of Dave Smith.
The Commission, which so many declared would be the greatest thing since sliced bread, has proven no better than dry toast.
For so long rugby league has survived with the “she’ll be right” mentality; citing successfully overcoming the Super League war as proof that the game can come back from anything.
But with TV ratings down and crowds at the point of embarrassment during the finals, combined with refereeing blunders and fans not feeling engaged on game days, rugby league faces an almighty challenge for relevance.
Many of the issues can be overcome with a full review and overhaul of the match-day experience for fans.
Food and drink prices, parking rates and the plain stupid 45 minute gap between the Holden Cup and NRL at the ground should be on top of the list of things to address.
Perhaps the wider problems of the NRL are evident by the fact that they issued a media release regarding the results of an investigation into the way the Bulldogs handled the Ben Barba situation earlier this year at 2.35pm last Saturday.
A cynic would think that it was a deliberate move to ensure under-resourced weekend newsrooms simply let it slip through the cracks.
And another thing…
Can you imagine the steam that would have been coming from Scott Morrison’s ears if the previous Government had announced it would only hold weekly media briefings on asylum seeker boat arrivals, and not publicly reveal when boats are turned around?
His changes to the way we’re informed about the critical issue of border protection and boat arrivals are a bit rich coming from a guy who spent the best part of his time in Opposition talking to the media at every opportunity.
