• Comment ()  Are Barack Obama and Mitt Romney Good Leaders?
Why Obama could pass healthcare when Clinton couldn't and how
Romney's business leadership would translate in the White House
October 5, 2012 RSS Feed Print President Barack Obama and
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, right, campaign
in swing states in August 2012.  The consensus in social science
is that institutional leaders rarely have a significant impact,
good or bad, because they tend to go through a filtering process
that's likely to produce a capable and competent candidate. In
Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, Harvard Business
School professor Gautam Mukunda explains when individuals in
leadership roles do make a difference. Mukunda recently spoke
with U.S. News about significant leaders, the traits embodied by
the great ones, and how the presidential candidates measure up.
Excerpts:  When do leaders matter?  When they're different from
the alternatives. Leaders of big organizations are chosen pretty
carefully. [Gene