The Public Safety Leaders and the Study of the Future Research Paper

The Public Safety Leaders and the Study of the Future - Research Paper Example Sadly there are some real-life scenarios in the contemporary times, which may extend some relevant insights to the public safety leaders as to how to achieve a balance between the current and future needs. The 9/11 disaster is in itself a glaring example as to how the public safety leaders in the United States failed to interpret the developments taking place in the present, which lead to a leadership crisis in the future (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, 2004). 9/11 was not only a grave intelligence failure but also a failure on the part of the public safety leaders to arrive at a prognosis of the future threats from the available facts, developments and intelligence inputs (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, 2004). Going by the topic under consideration, the positive and heartening thing is that in the public safety scenarios, both the success and failure of the leadership models resorted to extend important and vital inputs regarding the needs and requirements of the present are in a way also indicative of the future needs, provided the involved leadership does not fall a victim to a chronic tunnel vision (Storey, 2004, p. 9). In that context, the public safety leaders always need to have their feet firmly fixed in the present, while having a vision that takes the future within its ambit. The current failures and mishaps not only furnish the requisite feedback for immediate improvements but also yield an inventory as to the possible future challenges and requirements (Avolio, 2005, p. 79). So the public safety leaders should be really good at extrapolating the feedbacks of the present to predict the requirements of the future (Avolio, 2005, p. 79). There is a dire tendency amongst the public safety leaders to allocate a greater proportion of the resources and manpower to the immediate scenarios.