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By Will Randolph
Will Randolph is a McConnell Scholar in the Class of 2022. He is studying Spanish and political science at the University of Louisville.
It had been a long and exhausting four days in Annapolis. Every single delegate at the Naval Academy Leadership Conference was flat out beat, and most were ready to board the buses and planes that would take them back to their respective universities. It was the last day of the conference and there was surely one thing that all of the participants had learned: the military will wear you out. Not that any of the delegates were running miles around the Yard or carrying logs in their pantsuits and sportcoats, but four days of lectures, keynote speeches, and breakout sessions has a way of making one wish for a cramped Southwest flight where they know they’ll be able to close their eyes for a bit.
Yet despite all of the sluggish movement and sleepy eyes, every delegate to the conference was up and as attentive as they could be for the final hours on the schedule. And they had good reason to be excited. The Director of the FBI was the morning’s keynote speaker and it was assumed by the audience that such a prominent public figure would be an interesting and engaging orator, one full of stories about catching bad guys and all of the cool FBI stuff he surely does. While the Honorable Christopher A. Wray was certainly an impressive figure, he was definitely not the gun-toting, loud-talking, door-smashing FBI agent that a lot of people would visualize. Once he stepped on stage, it was clear that he would not be exceptionally exciting, at least not in the traditional stage-stomping, hand-clapping kind of way.
What was clear however, was how necessary the brand of boring that Directory Wray brought to that stage, and to politics, really is. In a world where our public leaders act in a bombastic, over-the-top fashion, the mundane directness (laced with innocent dad humor) of a middle-aged professional is refreshing. The theme of the conference was mentorship, and while Director Wray didn’t focus on it directly, his example and method of leadership (direct, professional, not overly serious) is exactly what we should look for in a public figure and is the type of figure we should seek for our mentors. Too often, the exuberant characters of our public sphere are celebrated as model figures. I think it’s a better idea to look at the humble, reserved, hard-working, and yes, boring, figures instead.
Will Randolph is a McConnell Scholar in the Class of 2022. He is studying Spanish and political science at the University of Louisville.