RECENTLY I have noticed people making more references in various discussions about leadership, which is important in all aspects of our lives. The word “true” should be in front of leadership because that is what impacts positively and transforms communities. Trapped within every follower is a hidden leader. I have learnt a lot about true leadership through the teachings of my mentor John Maxwell who I met and had conversations with. I am also a part of the John Maxwell team. I have learnt even more from someone I never met and a mentor and true leader to millions around the world, the late Dr Myles Munroe. His books are so powerful that even if you read only the introduction, you will receive many golden nuggets.

I decided to share the introduction below from his book: “The spirit of leadership”

“There is nothing as elusive as leadership. All the money in the world can make you rich, and all the power in the world can make you strong, but these things can never make you a leader. You can inherit a fortune but never leadership. Yet there is no greater need in our twenty-first century world than effective, competent leadership.

Our greatest challenge is that of a leadership vacuum. The number one need all over the globe today is not money, social programs, or even new governments. It is quality, moral, disciplined, and principle-centered leadership.

We need true leadership in our governments, businesses, schools, civic institutions, youth communities, religious organisations, homes, and in every arena of life— including the disciplines of law, medicine, science, sports, and the media. Yet the search for genuine leadership is becoming more difficult.

WHERE ARE THE TRUE LEADERS?
The complex, uncertain, uncharted waters of the twenty-first century have plunged us in to a world of globalisation, terrorism, economic uncertainty, famines, health epidemics, social transformation, corporate compromises, moral and ethical experimentation, religious conflicts, and cultural clashes. These conditions demand the highest quality of leadership that our generation can produce. Yet I have sat in the halls of governments and observed the struggles of today’s leaders. I have sat around the table chatting with presidents of countries, and I have heard them express their lack of ability to deal with their nations’ challenges. I have talked with cabinet ministers of governments around the world, and they openly ask for help, assistance, and advice. Many leaders just don’t know how to lead any longer.

THERE IS NOTHING AS ELUSIVE AS LEADERSHIP.
This crisis in leadership is on many people’s minds today. Questions of moral integrity, honour, values, role models, and respectable standards are topics of discussion on many news programs, and they are also in the thoughts of the man on the street. We hear of leaders having sexual escapades. We hear of business magnates falling by the dozens to corruption. We see national leaders and their cabinet members being tried by their own governments for stealing and other financial misconduct. We learn of priests abusing and misusing their authority and positions in order to take advantage of those whom they were entrusted to care for. Where are the true leaders today?

I believe the problem is that leadership has become a role one plays rather than a life one leads. Contemporary leaders are attempting to divorce their personal lives from their public responsibilities and their personal standards from their public lives. To many, leadership is an act, not a calling. Therefore, when they are in their offices, they act a certain way, but when they leave, they lead double lives. This is a contradiction of true leadership. Leadership is not a technique, a style, or the acquisition of skills, but a manifestation of a spirit.

Many institutions, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, civic organisations, and nonprofit entities spend billions of dollars every year training thousands of would-be leaders in management techniques, human manipulation skills, organisational systems, methods of control and persuasion, and much more, in the hopes of producing potential or better leaders. Yet such seminars cannot produce true leaders. Furthermore, the quality and standards of leaders are not increasing but decreasing.

LEADERSHIP HAS BECOME A ROLE ONE PLAYS RATHER THAN A LIFE ONE LEADS.
The shelves of every bookstore are stacked with books on the subject of leadership. Some promise instant transformation from follower to leader, while others sell cheap ideas that purport to create leaders by the application of shallow psychology and worn-out principles that frustrate those who invest in them. Research on how to be a leader continues by the leadership gurus as colleges and universities add special courses designed to produce or improve the cadre of leaders. Yet I believe that all the college courses in leadership can never make a leader.

Many of those whom we idolised as leaders in our modern societies have disappointed us as their fragile, formerly hidden inconsistencies have been exposed. Just the mention of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Martha Stewart, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Catholic priests tells the story of our culture of defective leadership. Moral defects; abuses of power, privilege, and trust; misuse of resources; corruption; and hypocrisy have become associated with leadership today, perhaps more than at any other time in history.

Morality, ethics, principles, convictions, standards, faithfulness, transparency, trustworthiness, and honesty are rare commodities in the field of contemporary leadership. Why is true leadership so difficult to find?

OUR CHEATING CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP
One day, as I settled in to my seat on a plane trip to address a group of leaders on ethics and morality in leadership, I was shocked to discover, in the copy of the American Way magazine in my seat pocket, an article by Joseph Guinto with this title: “Lie, Cheat, and Steal Your Way to the Top.” The subtitle read, “Everyone’s doing it, right? But what’s our cheating culture really costing us, and where and when does it end?” Obviously, this subject caught my eye, and I plunged into reading the content.

The article exposed and detailed the corrupting web of cheating as a culture at all levels of Western society, including the highest offices of leadership, and it talked about the “trickle-down corruption effect” taking place. Here are some facts contained in the article that I think are noteworthy: “Employee theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the U.S.A….the total cost of occupational fraud—mainly accounting schemes—was $600 billion in 2002…twice what it was in 1997.” The article said that one of the results of this widespread corruption is its effect on the mindset of future business leaders. An ethics professor at a top business school said, “[My] students defend their view that some cheating is okay by saying, ‘Everybody does it.’”

To be continued next week.
I got many take away from this and this is not the whole introduction. I can remember overhearing a conversation with a group of young people and they were referring to some situation and one of them said, “If the people in position can do it, so can I.” It made me feel sad because this can lead to unfortunate circumstances. We owe it to the next generation to be an example for them to emulate as we continue to celebrate this beautiful journey called life BEYOND THE RUNWAY.