Leadership
The current thinking surrounding leadership focuses on the relationship of one with another or one with the group or organization and to a lesser extent on one with oneself. The corporate world has hijacked the notion of leadership confining it to organizational guidance which entails, in a simplified way, the art of compelling other people to want to perform certain duties which otherwise they would not. In today’s society, as was in ancient times, those who influence the largest number of people for the longest time are perceived to be good leaders. Some of these people master the philosophy and techniques of influence but do not personally espouse the very ideals underlying the duties they compel others to perform. Plainly, organizational leadership is about power and title.
True leadership emerges from one’s exemplary life. Leadership does not depend on one’s ability to compel people to act in a certain way. Rather, true leadership is one’s ability to produce timeless knowledge that people seek to sustain and improve their lives.
It should not be a surprise then that people with real power are those who have insights, thoughts, ideas and ultimately knowledge about things that bring about permanent change in human life.
Leadership in action
Thoughts are things. Every object possessed by humans began with an imagination, an insight then developed into a thought in somebody’s mind. A thought turned into an idea gets translated into a physical item, a thing, and ultimately a contribution to the body of knowledge. Just about everything we think we know emanated from the mind of somebody; from tiny objects to the biggest there is. Things we learn in school are products of somebody’s brain work.
True leaders are those who have contributed to irreversible development of human life; those who create that which is essential to sustenance and improvement of life. Consumers of such contributions, at any level, are not leaders but followers. Consumers seek the output - knowledge - of those who dedicate their lives to producing the essential knowledge. Therefore, spending vast amounts of time memorizing and parroting output of others does not constitute leadership. It only makes one a resourceful consumer. Consumers borrow, buy and sometimes forage freely other people’s output. Leaders on the other hand create new knowledge, complement or supplement the output of others for their own consumption and, unintentionally, that of others.
New Thinking
The world is controlled by people whose knowledge they themselves and other people need. Leaders represent their output and their output represents them. It takes the character of a person to produce a certain output. That particular output bears the mental DNA of its producer. So much so that when people effectively demand and consume the output, they are consuming a piece of the producer.
Therefore to have a positive transformational effect on others, one has to begin by transforming oneself. Such transformation, though, must not be with the intent to ultimately influence other people but to develop oneself into the best human one can be. To achieve that, one must independently determine the significance of improving oneself. Having a burning desire to be self sufficient in thoughts is the starting point. Love of self, respect and appreciation of oneself are the logical subsequent steps.
One must understand that he or she is unique and cannot be another person no matter how hard one tried. There is only one of us at any one point in space and time; existing to play a role in the cycle of life. Life is a forward process and each one has a right to decide one’s purpose. One person can neither live two lives at one time nor can they live that which they missed because they chose another, because there is no such thing as going back in time. Lest the control of one’s mind be construed to have been handed over to the control of others, one is encumbered to decide one’s own destiny.
It is important to understand that one would gain mileage toward becoming the best person one can be if one spent time improving oneself in place of living in the shadow of someone else. Consequently, by taking actions that are consistent with one’s desire to be the best one can be, one’s character becomes grounded in universal governing values.
Achieving this, calls for one to reach deep inside and intuitively explore their character, long moments of reflection and self analysis. One must determine for oneself how to make their life meaningful in the broader human context.
The institute will not attempt to train people to be leaders of others but themselves. One cannot be a leader of another unless one achieves high level of success at leading oneself. Self leadership, therefore, clearly stating one’s purpose in life, writing it down, drawing specific steps one has to take to live up to the requirements of that purpose, working on a daily basis to fulfill that purpose. Being true to oneself simply means that one is always conducting oneself in accordance with one’s self determined purpose. It is in the process of living up to one’s own expectations that freedom of thought is developed. A free mind is a fountain of insights which turn into thoughts and then into ideas and ultimately things.
Copyright 2010
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