May 4 2010
A good leader has to be a great follower
What makes a good leader? If you follow a person you can always find flaws and they can always fail you.
Dr. Arif once said, “You have succeeded not when things run if you are there, but if things run even when you are not. You succeed if you can create a system.”
Similarly, a good leader knows he cannot watch his followers and be with them all the time and so he gives them something greater than himself, a system. A system with rules that they should follow even if he is not there.
A great leader knows that a system merely imposes rules but does not give motivation and will. He gives them a vision instead. A vision of something great that they too can be part of.
An excellent leader follows that same system himself. And he follows it so well that all his followers are now his believers. And they will follow that vision to his death, and even after it.
The truly excellent leader realizes that he too must follow this grand vision that he gives to his people. After all, if he cannot follow that vision, why should they?
And so an excellent leader must be an even better follower and he must follow a vision greater than his own self.
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May 06, 2010 @ 03:22:24
"A great leader knows that a system merely imposes rules but does not give motivation and will. He gives them a vision instead. A vision of something great that they too can be part of."
I think a leader should also be wary that creating a system without imparting a vision will only lead to the birth of a machine without motivation or will and that machine can be destructive.
If we think about all the suffocating systems and warped ideologies that seem archaic and rough in need of a revolution, we should remember at the onset they were probably seen as a panacea from a hero. But hero dies, and panacea turns to cancer. Dum dum dum…
So I would think a leader would definitely need to remain partly a follower, and remember that there are repercussions for both good and bad things that he or she will leave behind and take a step back and wonder if he/she would want to follow what has been set in time to come. Unfortunately too many revolutionaries and great leaders are a bit shortsighted in their great plans.
May 06, 2010 @ 22:38:42
I'm glad that you can see what I'm saying. And I totally agree that leaders are often a little short-sighted in their plans. It's easy enough to be a leader with a little charisma but that proves nothing about how well you can ensure that you can lead well.
The most excellent leaders in history such as our prophets have all followed something greater than themselves and each led a vision that is followed to this very day (as the 3 most influential religions: Islam, Christianity, Judaism).
So to be an excellent leader, you must first be an excellent follower.
Or at least, that's my opinion.
May 07, 2010 @ 02:23:16
Weeell to be fair the leaders of Islam, Christianity and Judaism all sort of had God directly behind their backs…it's a bit hard to beat that.
But even with religions, unfortunately there was progressive institutionalization of a 'faith and practice' until religions became systems. And you can argue that some versions of the systems may not necessarily represent the vision that these leaders once had for their followers. Not that it's the fault of the leaders of course… on some level, all things will decay to varying degrees…
Anyhoo. I think another important thing a good leader needs to do is scout for a good successor…not necessarily someone who shares the same vision or promises to.. but at least someone who would honor and expand good things. Not just someone who wants to do something because they need to do some thing as part of their tenure. It bugs me so much that we have such little accountability for past-leaders. It's like, once you step down you did nothing wrong. Kesian all newly elected people who are handed the governance with bad baggage.
It's like some person renting a car and then ramming it into various walls and bramble bushes and then hands the keys to a now banged up car to the next guy and says, "here you go!"
May 10, 2010 @ 01:03:10
It IS pretty horrible how the successors have to take nearly all the blame for what their predecessors have done. I guess that's where you sometimes need propaganda to clear your name and remind people that Bush destroyed the economy with his crazy wars and invasions and that Obama is just trying to clear things up.
I pretty much agree with you about choosing a successor. You need someone who can make sure that things can and will run well and make sure that good things happen. The only thing is, what do you mean by 'good'? I would probably say that for that organization, 'good' is whatever brings it closer to achieving its vision.
But I slightly disagree with you on the whole leadership thing. Yes, they had God and truth backing them, but it doesn't take away from the fact that they were great leaders in their own right. And I've always believed it to be, that they didn't become amazing people because they were prophets, but that it was the other way around. They were chosen as prophets BECAUSE they were already amazing people.
The trouble is, we need more of these amazing people and we have no idea how to make them. Did you know that nobody has a definition of a good teacher? But that's for a future blogpost.