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Effective leaders understand the wisdom in Teddy Roosevelt's sage advice to "Speak softly and carry a big stick" in order to catalyst action and get results.

In business and the public sector 'much talk, little action' has deteriorated further to 'too much talk, too little - or even no - action'.

Domestically, the first weeks of Barack Obama's nascent presidency have been 'All Talk -- Limp Stick or No Action'.

Rhetoric aside, 'All Talk, No Action' does not bode well for our country; and, may prove insightful of Mr. Obama's leadership; or, perhaps, lack of backbone.

Here are some early indicators:

Despite President Obama's populist verbiage pointing to executive pay, the new rules limiting annual salary to $500,000 for executives at companies receiving so-called "exceptional aid from the government" applies "in the future".

In other words, big bailout firms including Citibank, Bank of America, AIG, and GM, as well as the top execs whose behavior provided the fodder for President Obama's comments, will not be affected because the Obama administration will not apply the new rules retroactively. The huge bonuses that were paid out to senior managers at the failing firms, following receipt of billions of taxpayer dollars in government bailout funds, were and remain inappropriate. A public call for return of the individual bonuses is appropriate. Mr. Obama should find the backbone to use the bully pulpit to do so.

But, so far, it's been all talk, no stick and no action.

During the campaign, and since, Mr. Obama has talked about the immediate need for action on the residential housing front. And, his HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan has stressed that "limiting foreclosures will be key to solving the crisis in the housing market and broader economy". Yet, nothing has been done. And nothing was planned - or it was overlooked - as the original Obama Trillion Dollar stimulus package omitted any funding. Perhaps, that's why, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, proposed -- and last week the Senate approved - his amendment to the original stimulus plan that would require the Treasury Department to spend at least $50 billion in funds from the bank bailout on a loan modification program.

So again, Obama all talk, no content, no action.

On bi-partisanship and uniting the country, then Senator Obama told Americans during the Democrat party primary campaign "I can do it better"; and that as president, "I would convene a continuous advisory committee especially on security issues".

During his acceptance speech in Denver as Democrat party nominee, Obama embraced bipartisanship as "finding goals both sides agree on related to these issues".

But, after inauguration, during his first meeting with congressional leaders of both parties about his Trillion Dollar Stimulus package, Obama responded to the first question from a Republican with "I won".

So, yet again, all the talk Americans have heard did not birth the promised action. Instead, we learn about a reaction that is, at best, an indication of a lack of ego control; or worse, we may have seen an aspect of inexperience related to leadership maturity.

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