Leadership
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"Leaders," they say, "are made, not born." Whatever is the truth of this assertion, the fact is that in the course of human history, there have been extraordinary individuals who have been blessed by what we ord-inary mortals call "leadership qualities" -- an uncanny ability to move men and women to action towards a common goal. And, because they are perceived to be so (that is, as "leaders"), they are able to muster loyal folowers who willingly do their bidding, often at great sacrifice and risk to their followers and supporters - yes, even to the point of death itself - as their soldiers, disciples, zealots, and loyalists. These leaders are found in almost every sphere of human endeavor - in the military, in the academe, at the workplace, even in families, groups and associations, among children and adults. In fact, wherever there is a social group of people (and animals, too), that group will, sooner or later, inevitably choose one of their own as their acknowledged leader and who will articulate the wishes and idiosyncracies of the group or motivate them towards a common goal or action. Sometimes, it is the leader himself/herself who will "install" his/her person as their acknowledged head, often by force of personality or by possesion of above-average attributes, skills, or competence. The process of installation of the leader may be relatively smooth, painful, even violent (as in the case of bloody revolutions, or, a "fight-to-the-finish" between two dominant beasts in the animal king-dom). While the leader's "reign" may be long or short, the important thing is that he/she enjoys unstinted support from the majority of the members. A leader whose support has eroded will not last long as one, and will likely be replaced or forced to step down. In organizations such as business enterprises or companies, there exists a formal "people structure" (man-agement structure) whereby people are arranged into formal groups under a formal leader (called a "group head," a "supervisor," "foreman," or unit/section "manager."). Unit heads are, in turn, placed under a larger "department" headed by a "department" head or executive. Departments may be grouped further into divi-sions, and ultimately all of these large or small group clusters are under a president or chief executive officer (CEO). The list can be extended indefinitely but that is not our concern here. Our main concern rather is, WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OR QUALITIES OF LEADERS? WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADERSHIP? The rest of this Section will dwell on these important questions. We will start with .... |