I think one of the things that can help new leaders be successful is to take a sincere, honest, novel approach that immediately signals they are cut from a different cloth. The following is according to a NYT article.
Last December, the newly elected Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, facing a huge budget deficit, arrived in Brussels for his first meeting with European leaders.
Papandreou’s game plan? Play for time, cover up the extent to the crisis? Neither. Instead he opted for straight talk and told them everything. “This is a problem. I will tell you what my view is and what I am trying to do.”
According to the article, not only was the Greek deficit two times as high as had been reported, but Greece’s finances were also a disaster. Tax evasion was the norm and corruption everywhere.
To the surprise of many, his strategy worked. Within months, he secured the bailout he needed, still maintaining good partnerships with his fellow European leaders — not an easy achievement.
Mr. Papandreou’s strategy of telling it like it is has worked out for him at home, too. Amidst harsh cutbacks and letting Greeks know that they are largely to blame for their own problems, he remains popular with voters. It was only a few years ago that people questioned whether he had what it takes for the job.
Recent Greek leaders have tended to indulge in luxury, be flamboyant and uncompromising, with a liking for nationalistic rhetoric and a love of perks. Mr. Papandreou, though he grew up in a socialist political clan, has broken the mold. At times, he talks so quietly — whether in the English he speaks with a California twang or in his other three languages — that it is hard to hear him.
He had barely taken office when he gave up his predecessor’s luxury BMW and used a Toyota Prius from the state motor pool as his official car. Then he told his ministers to downsize, too. Some even had to share cars.
“I think they understood it was symbolically important,” Mr. Papandreou said. But he gave them little choice. Such concessions helped persuade Germany, the most reluctant of the big European countries, to back a rescue package for Greece, one of the most fiscally reckless members of European community.
Mr. Papandreou is eager for reform. Though the Papandreou family has the political resonance in Greece of the Kennedys, Mr. Papandreou is American-born and educated. He has stubbornly pursued the prime minister’s office for much of the decade, despite being rejected twice by the Greek voters.
He ran an Obama-like campaign promising change and transparency. He now faces the tasks of dismantling the sprawling Greek welfare system that his father, Andreas, helped erect when he was prime minister in the 1980s. Let's see what he is able to accomplish in his first 100 days.
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