Great leadership is a valuable resource in any group endeavor. People with a great deal of knowledge and/or technical skill can come together with the best intentions, but without a good leader, the project might still fall apart. This is true for both comparatively small academic projects for classes, and much larger projects, like plans for national development.
In order to be a good leader, it helps to have a great deal of youthful energy and good health, due to the unpredictable and demanding nature of the work. Leaders often have to work a lot harder and longer than their “followers.” Unfortunately, men and women rarely rise to very high positions in politics, business, etc. while young. Most high-level politicians or CEO’s are middle-aged or older.
Age is definitely a factor in people’s choice of leader. One of the reasons some voters gave for not voting for Senator John McCain in the recent United States Presidential elections was his advanced age. They thought that Senator Barack Obama’s comparative health, youth, and vigor might make him a better leader.
Of course, this by no means proves that young people are better leaders than old people. The comparatively advanced age of many top world leaders can be a good thing, because they have more maturity, wisdom, and experience. (Remember that Obama’s youth was held against him by some detractors, even as some of his supporters said it was a good quality.) It is just a pity that this maturity often coincides with a decline in energy and vigor.
Tracing the decline in a leader’s physical powers can be quite a complex business. After all, we can say that leadership itself contributes to a person’s physical and sometimes even mental deterioration over time, simply by virtue of its constant pressure. Also, leaders who do a lot of grass-roots or hands-on work can expose themselves to physical danger and disease.
It is no wonder that some people who are or would like to be leaders might want to find a way to hold on to the energy of youth even as they gain in wisdom, experience, and of course, powerful connections over time. Easing off on the demands of leadership might be counter-productive, and also personally frustrating, so it makes sense to target one of the physical/chemical roots of aging: the drop-off in a person’s production of human growth hormone as they get older.
Despite its name, human growth hormone is about more than just facilitating your growth into a bigger, taller person as you reach adulthood. It has many other effects on the body: it helps maintain a strong immune system, stimulates cell reproduction, and facilitates mental concentration and mood regulation. As you can see, the effects of a fall in production would be very wide-ranging. The effects may be gradual, but over time, they can make leadership and life in general much more difficult.
Therefore, it might be worth it to look into taking hormone supplements (or, more accurately, supplements that stimulate the production of certain hormones) as part of one’s health regimen with the onset of middle age onwards. Supplements are not everything, and also must be taken in careful doses to avoid side effects. However, these supplements might help people of advanced age and good leadership ability to put their best effort forward on important projects.
I have always wondered about the general age of politicians and which ones were taken more seriously than others. Thanks for explaining that a little better for me.