Have core leadership values been declining recently?

IMO, effective, functional leadership VABEs and behaviors are enduring. Whether people and current “authoritors” (people in positions of authority are not necessarily “leaders”, they are just in a job that people call leadership) are more or less aware of and using those VABEs and principles of behavior is open for debate. Consider some thoughts:

1. Zimbardo’s prison studies at Stanford showed that randomly chosen people given authority will likely begin very quickly to abuse that authority.
   
   
2. Most people, IMO, in national elections vote on one or two key issues for them, issues like abortion, immigration, and budget management (even though no difference on that one between the parties).
   
   
3. Leadership is about managing energy, first in yourself and THEN in those around you. See Level Three Leadership People can be effective at getting others to rally even if they are incompetent. People are susceptible to superficial “charisma.” Energy, positive and negative, is contagious.
   
   
4. Depending on what you want to influence, Behavior (Level One), Thoughts (Level Two) or VABEs (Level Three), there are different influence techniques. Again see L3L above. Rewards and punishments are superficial behavioral techniques (see BF Skinner). What inspires people is Clarity of Purpose and Clarity of Vision. What are we doing here and where are we going?
   
   
5. Trust is a function of three things: Competence, Consistency and Caring. If any one of those three legs is missing, trustworthiness topples.
   
   
6. Few people have all three skill sets of effective executives: Vision, Ability to Sell Vision, and Ability to manage progress toward the Vision. See Survey of Managerial Style.

So, are “core leadership values” declining? No. Are the incumbents in some key positions LACKING in those core values? Yes. Effective, functional leadership hasn’t changed. Many authoritors don’t understand them or use them.