Leaders are not what many people think–people with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see whether anyone is following them. “Leadership qualities” are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. They include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, determination, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head even when things are going badly. This is the opposite of the “charisma” that we hear so much about. – John Holt
Found this quote in a post by Caterina Fake titled Make Things
>>”[…] courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, determination, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head even when things are going badly.”
…I thought that pretty much encapsulates what any empowered professional worker is, not what a leader. Questioning whether a leader needs followers is interesting though…
Sep 7th, 2011 / 10:56 am
I would like this so much more if there wasn’t a typo…. 8th line, beginning of last sentence is refering to leadership qualities and should read, “They include….” not “The include….”
Sep 7th, 2011 / 11:39 am
Leader is one who is able to follow himself, and encourages others to do the same.
Sep 7th, 2011 / 2:18 pm
@Blah: Fixed.
Sep 7th, 2011 / 4:43 pm
Neat idea and some points are really good, but it is unfortunately lacking in some areas. Now, I’ll apologize up front, but my view of leadership is going to be tainted by my military experience. A leader must have followers or he is nothing. A leader isn’t someone who gets other people to do what he is doing, but one who gets people to do things that they weren’t doing before, maybe that nobody is doing, and when put together they accomplish more than all of them could have done alone. A leader is someone who can organize, delegate, convince, and command. In the end, he may not even be that visionary because he may just be following someone else’s orders. It’s the way that he can effectively use a team to execute those orders that makes him a leader. (and please also excuse the use of male pronouns. I was going to make it generic, but it just got too awkward.)
Sep 9th, 2011 / 6:18 am