“We lack leadership in this country.”
“What do you mean?”
‘We lack leadership in this organisation.”
“What do you mean?”
“We lack leadership in this church, mosque, temple, school…”
Define leadership. What do you mean by “leadership?”
Does a good leader lead by the command-and-control method? Like Churchill? Whose leadership is credited with saving the western world from Nazi dictatorship?
So if he was such a great leader, why was he rejected as leader of his nation as soon as the war was over?
Was Hitler a great leader, when millions of his citizens obeyed his every word, to the point that the people of one of the most civilised and cultured countries in the world would follow his orders and those of his executive to torture, strip and murder thousands upon thousands of babies, small children, adults, elderlies, religious leaders, handicapped people, gypsies and scholars? Was he then such a great leader? Because he was obeyed?
There are people who would argue that he was.
Or Stalin, or Pol Pot, or Vladimir Putin?
What about St Augustine? His thoughts and standards are quoted daily still, 2,500 years after his death, and for better or worse are embedded in the laws of most of the world’s nations.
What about that poor ragged half-naked itinerant preacherman who was nailed to a cross, betrayed by one of his closest friends and followers? Was he a great leader?
His followers carried out his revolutionary directives, some dying as a result, for 300 years, until the Emperor Constantine hijacked his movement, made it into a state enterprise, as clever governors have been doing ever since, and made his teachings the basis of wealthy corporate enterprises and judicious investment portfolios, now richer than most countries’ GDP.
Is that leadership?
The heads of those lucrative enterprises still outwardly preach peace and love while the press says their followers practise abuse, child molestation, political dominance, and dictatorial rule, just as do the followers of other philosophies, religions, political movements, and the vast commercial enterprises that provide work, food, livelihoods, and shelter for most of civilisation throughout this sad and battered world we live in.
So leadership, like money, is not ethical or moral in itself, it seems. It depends on the use it is put to.
[caption id="attachment_946312" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Members of the German parliament Bundestag give Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a standing ovation before he speaks in a virtual address to the parliament at the Reichstag Building in Berlin, Germany on March 17. -[/caption]
Are those who follow the military pattern, setting out strategies, and making plans to cover contingencies and following them, the ones to emulate, or those who “lead by walking around,” the people-oriented ones who understand people's needs and motivations and know how to communicate love and support the ones we should follow?
In the new discipline of psychometric assessment and measurement, it has often been observed
