At a moment of witnessed history, French King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, stood on the death platform, amid angry fans who no longer see in the crown a symbol of prestige, but rather a title of lethality.
This scene may seem from the distant past, but in fact it carries a contemporary message, as when the administration fails, everything falls, whatever the top is high.
Louis was not only due to the plots or transient popular anger, but rather as a result of heavy administrative accumulations. His hesitation, his weakness in decision -making, and his inability to understand the pulse of the French street, made him a king without leadership. As the economic crisis exacerbated, and the increase in hunger among the people, the break between the palace and the people was increasing.
Then his wife, Mary Antoinette, came to embody the other side of the tragedy, obscene extravagance, a provocative luxury, and a mental image that was printed by the rumors such as “Let them eat cakes”, whether or not she said it, it was reduced as a symbol of the administration’s failure to communicate with reality.
From here, the lessons start, on top of which are four, as follows: the weak leadership costs expensive: when decisiveness and clarity are absent, and when the leader hesitates or is confused, trust is eroded. Employees or citizens are watching and interacting, and when they see hesitation and weakness, loyalties begin with erosion. Separation of reality is an administrative crime: the leader who does not hear, does not see, and does not feel, quickly loses his ability to judge and manage. Whoever lives inside his palace, isolated from the details of daily life, will not realize when the crisis explodes, except after it is too late.
Transparency is not a luxury: an attempt to hide the truth, or an alliance with external parties as Lewis did by trying to escape and asked for support from Austria, destroying the remaining image. In today’s world, transparency is the basis of continuity, not just an option. Crisis management wisely not violently: if there is a real administration of the crisis, if listening, reform, and gradual change, may change the course of the revolution. This lesson is clearly reflected in today’s institutions, as the absence of sophistication leads to an unaccounted escalation.
The fall of Louis and Mary was not only the moment of the end of a royal regime, but a moment that revealed the depth of the impact of administrative weakness.
Today, in companies and institutions, the same rules are still valid, and remember them: leadership is not a center, but a responsibility. Failure to drive, not only a person, but also shakes a complete entity. And if we want to continue, let us learn from history, not to inherit it, but to survive it.
Now, how official we have to grant the confidence of a sector management in which employees and human powers, and it is supposed to serve sectors of people, how much is the official who deals with the situation like Louis XVI, and perhaps it was a qualitative next to him like Mary Antoinette?!
