True Leadership

"Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."
-Harry S. Truman

Courage, wisdom, perseverance, and sincerity are all crucial aspects of genuine leadership. None of these qualities can be inherited because each of these attributes must be collected and learned through time and experience alone. These are the strengths of character which simply cannot be taught. Gradually through experiencing leadership itself, each of these must be earned. But to truly possess leadership, there is more. These attributes must be applied in unison for the purpose of inspiring others to become what they only dreamed they could be. This influence must activate each of these individuals in a way that makes them capable of achieving goals only the cooperation of a group with a single mind and uniformity of purpose can dare to achieve.

Leadership demands the courage to forge a new trail and venture where none have gone before. It requires a stalwart character in the face of all who disagree. It takes a firm belief in a vision- a faith unshaken by threat and a faith unchallenged by fear. This is a courage which will not back down, even in the bleak and dismal face of utter defeat.

But although leadership has been known to be fearless and daring, do not think for a moment it is either foolish or unwise. Leaders of the past have proven that only wisdom alone can deliver the genuinely confident and accurate decisive action that commands respect, trust, and eventually faith from all of our fellow men. Without the foresight that wisdom can provide, courage can never be anything more than a youthful gamble.

Perseverance in leadership is the supplement of both courage and wisdom, giving each the tenacity to overcome the obstacles inherent in exploring the unknown. We fall so we can learn to pick ourselves up, not so we can learn to give up. What great things have we accomplished when we turned away at the slightest challenge? In the history of humanity, there is none.

Above all other things, in order to draw faith from his followers, a leader must be sincere. Courage, wisdom, and perseverance alone may be able to win a person over, but will not be able to keep the hearts of others. There must be exhibited in a leader's character not only a genuine passion for the ideals he holds, but a conviction that these very ideals are the highest. There must be a completeness of vision which simply cannot be compromised or neglected. There can be no hipocrisy within a leader without it earning a compounded measure of distrust from the people. The leader cannot simply live his ideals. The effective leader must unequivocally become the example his fellow men genuinely desire to follow.
And a leader is no one with out one who will follow.

Though all of the aspects described are necessary for good leadership, like leadership itself no ideal can be forced upon men. Leadership must be learned and perfected through practice. It must grow out of the highest ideals of man. Genuine and competent leadership is the master technique of drawing the best out of men by setting an effective example of courage, wisdom, perseverance and sincerity so admirable and trustworthy men hunger to follow it.

Post by JoNell Graham