Leadership today

Being in charge of an organisation or a business and managing its affairs implies the ability to lead without swerving from Truth, from the facts. This principle applies to all ages and all times but is all too easily forgotten or ignored. A leader must have a special energy and enthusiasm for the job. He or she must have inner strength and if one is successful one should not feel proud or arrogant. On the contrary, one should be able to behave with magnanimity and liberality in such a way that everyone feels included. The great Indian poet Kalidâsa once remarked in one of his plays: the king's behaviour was such that all his subjects thought that he or she alone was very dear or close to the king. If a celebrated actress gives a 45 minutes press conference for 50 journalists the same could easily happen. It recently happened to Catherine (Kate) Winslett. Such is the power of attention, combined with the good name of a celebrated stature.
With leadership one should feel at home and at ease as if one were working with and for friends. Leadership through fear and coercion is disastrous. If a leader knows how to engender the quality of friendliness and mercy the organisation or the business will thrive and function to the satisfaction of all - even in hard times when painful decisions may be necessary. There is, however, another aspect that is most relevant. An element of ambition is natural, but when it forfeits the restraint of observation and just looking at the facts and when manipulative drive starts to usurp its place we can so easily end up selling – to use an example – collateralised debt obligations; in other words ‘baked air’. In such a world clever dealing wins the plaudits and truthful practice is acknowledged with reluctant condescension. A leader should have his feet-on-the-ground and not be thrown by the ups and downs; in fact, all is viewed from an inner sense of balance. This, of course, is not easy. Indeed, without some degree of inner spiritual connection, very difficult, if not impossible.
A real leader is not interested in power and glory but in the well-being of the organisation, the employees and the customers. This universal dimension gives true leadership a quality of serving all and everything. It entails the need for utter simplicity. Such a leader would not function from a desire for wealth and profit but from a sense of duty. Would Winston Churchill ever have started with the leadership of the allied forces if 'earning a nice salary' had been his motivating force?
Such is the dimension of true leadership.

Paul G. Van Oyen