Think Twice, Speak Once: Leadership Matters

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Never known for his subtlety, nor for his strong argumentation skills, Coca-Cola (KO Quote) CEO Muhtar Kent has taken on the soft-drink tax, not so much from a "public support" angle, but from the "evil empire" angle.

In comments at the Rotary Club in Atlanta, Kent said, "I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink. ... If it worked, the Soviet Union would still be around."

Seriously? The best argument against the proposed soft-drink tax is that it paves the way to communism?

Fallacies in critical thinking such as this are a key factor in deteriorating trust in leadership. And clear leadership communication seems to be a commodity in short supply these days. Recently, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle (ORCL Quote) was addressing the issue of the delayed acquisition of Sun Microsystems (JAVA Quote). He stated, "If, just for one dollar, we could buy IBM (IBM Quote), H-P (HPQ Quote), Sun or any of these tech companies, I'm not sure we wouldn't pick Sun."

Huh? So, you should buy Sun? You shouldn't buy Sun? If you could get them for a buck, you would? It seems in the context of his statements, this was supposed to be a good thing and then he added that Sun Microsystems is losing $100 million a month. I think I would put my dollar back in my pocket.

Then there are the alleged remarks made in private rooms somehow leaked and then interpreted by every news agency until finally the company sets it straight. Cadbury's (CBY Quote) CEO Todd Stitzer allegedly stated in a private correspondence that the potential takeover of Cadbury by Kraft (KFT Quote) "Makes some strategic sense."

Until this point, Cadbury had rebuffed Kraft's offer, in part, because the acquisition "makes no sense." To clarify their point, Cadbury issued a statement that Stitzer remarks were referring to the offer making strategic sense for Kraft but not for Cadbury.