Interesting story from 2 Chronicles 10, where Rehoboam is set to become king of Israel. Knowing this, the people ask if he would consider lightening their tax load. In exchange, they promise to be loyal subjects. The future kings mulls it over and asks the people to come back in a couple days. Rehoboam then seeks counsel from two sources. The first are his father Solomon's advisors, the old guys. They agree with the people and say it would be wise for Rehoboam to listen to them and lighten the load. Rehoboam then seeks advice from his peeps, who tell him the exact opposite- that he should be tougher then his father to show the people who's really in charge now.
And isn't this a temptation for most leaders? Rather then take the advice of older and wiser folks, lighten things up, and win the people over with niceness, the newer (younger) leader feels the need to do things on his own, establish control, and send messages to the people he leads.
Rehoboam's decision doesn't go too well for him. And while there's obviously much more to leaderership then being nice and listening to older folks, sometimes it is exacly what is called for.
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