Leadership

Through my life experiences and readings, contrarian to expectations, I have formed an opinion that though leadership is a venerated skill, not all leaders are virtuous. Leaders merely have the competence to sway their follower’s thoughts and the power to influence the followers conduct as per their own wishes. Leaders thus possess the powerful ability to introduce change, lead initiatives and get grand things done. In this vein, Hitler or the mythical Pied Piper were also able leaders.

Piousness and a high moral ground are only some tools that a leader may use to establish his/her leadership. A strong value system earns the respect of the followers for the leader. Selflessness through actions (words don’t count) and abstinence imbues amongst the followers a belief that the leader is a saint sacrificing his personal well being for them and hence can be trusted to be blindly followed. Leaders like Gandhi, Buddha and Nelson Mandela fall in this category. Such leaders are very good role models. Leaders also use charisma, ambition, fear, greed and other not so virtuous facets of human psyche to establish their domination. Such leaders will be found in greater numbers. An important thing to note is that one cannot fool all the people all the time. Pretence does not last for very long. By repeatedly pretending something, it either becomes a part of the traits of an individual or he/she gets exposed. If the reality is exposed, a pretender will find that he/she loses the followers in a hurry and may even be derided by the same set of people who once worshiped the leader.

A leader simply aligns the efforts of a group of people towards a common direction just like a magnet is able to shape iron filings into a beautiful pattern.