All Leaders are Unreliable

"All leaders are unreliable."
--Scott Adams

The creator of Dilbert had this to say in his blog recently. (Click on his name to read that whole post and a whole bunch of comments that people left.) If you haven't read the whole thing, here's one paragraph to give you some idea of the context: "I’d point out that most of our information about the war comes from the generals. All leaders are unreliable. A general would be fired immediately if he said the surge was a bad idea. And if a general believed the surge might succeed, even as a long shot, he’d be a crappy leader if he told anyone his true assessment of the odds. So you can’t believe the leaders." He also pointed out how people try to justify their mistakes in their own minds.

This got me thinking because I am a leader. If things were going badly in the youth group that I'm involved in leading, or if things were reasonably good but needed some changes to take it to the next level, would I say so? Would I even admit it to myself? Of course, things are going well there, but can you take my word for it? Can I take my word for it?