Leadership

The Dire Need for Leadership
An old and still close friend said to me earlier today over the phone: the church’s leadership is not what it used to be or should be. Even clergy are disoriented and as if they were not willing or capable to lead. It made me think of a present trend at least in the environment where I find myself, namely the emphasis on the need for leadership. This dire need is felt all over the place. On the radio this morning one caller said the following: I am amazed at the level of corruption in politics and in high places. What has become of our ideals? Where are those who fought in the struggle and knew what it meant to make sacrifices? Above all, the caller said, what is the most difficult thing to accept is that this corruption is done straight in the face of the poor and destitute, who seem to be destined to stay where they are.
A leadership crisis there is, indeed, and I think it is global and has to do with the fact that too many have been tempted to make short cuts in their lives. Let me explain what I mean. The last couple of years I have been privileged to teach a leadership course at the university for third year students. One of the sources that I am using is Stephen Covey’s amazing book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The book has been sold in well over ten million copies by now and not without reason. As lecturer I have had the time to scrutinize his text over and over again and I must say, it holds what it promises. And one sign of this is that each year at least one student has come up to me and said: thank you, you should just know that this course has changed my life.
This is not the place to give any kind of review of this important leadership manual, rather just to emphasize one thing, and one thing only. It is the first habit, which is ‘be proactive’. This caption has virtually nothing to do with being extra active, in term of for example make phone calls, contact people or the like. Rather it has to do with inner principles that are integrated in the person in question. It is to have the ability to have a direction in life whatever happens. If you for example are offered a large sum of money that has been acquired unlawfully, you would not even contemplate taking it but immediate react saying, but this money I can’t take, that would be to steal! It is about having firm principles in life about what is truth and just and fair. Another way of expressing the same thing is to check out where you have you centre. One could easily enumerate about ten such centres. Is it your self, your wife, your children, your house, your money, your work, your church, your hobby? But none of these examples will make you an independent person. Your centre should rather be principle based.
What may be missing is that character ethics that only parental love and a continuous and consistent life style that is marked by a search for truth, justice and fairness in everyday life can provide. Personality ethics, as quick fixes according to all ‘how to…’ books won’t do. Such behaviour will not stand the test but cause the person in question to fall at the way side. In other words, what we should be concerned about are the many children who never get a role model in at least one parent to emulate.
But on the other hand, it is never too late to start changing your centre and become principle based. A habit is not only something that you acquire from early childhood; it can also be acquired much later. A proof of this is Steve Biko’s writings (I Write What I Like), as it is about how blacks in South Africa, regardless of age, always could start building their own (black) consciousness, thus building a principle that is inviolable and provides a strong personality of character. You must start with yourself otherwise you will never be able to deal with others in an adequate way. Another friend said just the other day the following. His watershed in the struggle against apartheid was the day he discovered that his mother had joined the homeland party where they lived. To my friend this was to give in to the apartheid regime, which was the main cause of the miseries that blacks endured. He had to denounce his mother on this point. For a 14 year old this was a very difficult decision and only later the mother would realise the mistake and join the son. Leadership is about the ability of being proactive rather than reactive, to be out there before others and know what it takes to stand by certain principles. We all react on stimuli, but there is this short gap before we react and that gap could make the whole difference. I am a human being and I don’t just react, I act on the basis of what I hold as true and right.