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"Brent Filson doesn't just teach you how to lead. He inspires you to do it!" —Duncan Maxwell Anderson, Senior Editor, Success Magazine.

"What Brent teaches is simple yet profound in its implications. We need to motivate people to choose to be our cause leaders, not have people simply do things. Instead of telling people what you know and want them to do, we need to understand their motivation, tap their emotion, and enlist them as cause leaders to share a dream. I keep Brent's card in my wallet to remind me of the steps in the process. Every Leadership Talk that I give follows this process. I recently used this process to enlist the support in a campaign for corporate giving. As a result we increased the employee participation and realized an increase in the giving rate per employee by 10%. His approach had a positive impact on the results."

– David Goodnight, Vice President, Asia/Pacific & Latin America

"I've been using Brent Filson's methodologies for more than seven years. And they get results! They not only get results on a tactical level but a strategic level too."

– Richard Brown, President & Global General Manager, Fortune 100 Company.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Overriding Campaign Issue: "It’s Leadership, Stupid!"

New York, March 3, 2004 – Now that the Super Tuesday results have made it an undisputed Bush/Kerry presidential campaign, what is the overriding campaign issue? It’s Leadership, Stupid!, says leadership expert Brent Filson, echoing the now-famous sign from a former successful presidential campaigner.

Twelve years ago, Bill Clinton hung a sign in his presidential campaign headquarters, "It’s the economy, stupid!" Then, says Filson, he went on to trounce the first President Bush whose campaign had focused primarily on Clinton’s reputed indecisiveness, foreign affairs inexperience, dangerous liaisons and supposed draft dodging – all sub-issues when compared against the slumping economy.
By focusing on the wrong issues, Bush #1 was beaten decisively, says Filson, founder and president of The Filson Group, Inc., a corporate leadership consultancy.
Since then, "It’s (you pick the issue), stupid!" has been a popular election catch-phrase describing unwitting candidates with any kind of misapplied focus, says Filson says.
In the 2004 campaign, we may be headed for another sorry case of misapplied focus, says Filson, who marks his 20th anniversary working with thousands of business leaders worldwide.
"I submit that the defining issue is : ‘It’s leadership, stupid!, Filson says. "Sure, the issues that the pundits are touting — jobs, the Iraqi war, national security — are important. But the overriding issue, one that will be on the minds and hearts of swing voters come November is, "Who can best lead the country in these turbulent times?"

If the campaign rhetoric of the past few weeks is any indication, both candidates might be as clueless to the real issues, just as the first George Bush was in 1992, Filson says.

Click here to download the article "The Real 2004 Campaign Issue: ‘It’s Leadership, Stupid!’" (PDF 108KB)

To schedule a broadcast guest appearance for Brent Filson, call 413-458-4403, or e-mail: pr@actionleadership.com

Filson’s latest leadership book, “The Leadership Talk: The Greatest Leadership Tool,” to be published in Fall 2004, is available now to media in preview galleys.