Leadership Thinking

Leadership has been a topic as long as human beings began to talk and write. Many thoughts about it appear in literature. Though I am not sure how to organize my words to give a definition of leadership, a leader first should definitely be a person leading by his own action.

There are has been too many people who talk more than doing things but act like a leader. When I was in my freshmen year, I joined a committee of a student government. The committee director was a 'leader' because of his status but he failed to do what a leader should accomplish. He was always assigning all the tasks to every committee members while he was doing his own stuff without participating in the work. At last, he failed in the next selection because no one thought he did a good job in his term.

Second, leadership also means influence others by spirit not power. Leaders motive others by spirit while managers get people by power. I will be very glad to follow a leader out of my hear because I believe what he/ she believes. I may get things done because of work and power, which does not mean I enjoy or like it. This is a huge difference between leadership and management.


A famous quote from Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher living about 2600 years ago, explains leadership that I like most:

          “To lead people, walk beside them ...
           As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
           The next best, the people honor and praise.
           The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ...
           When the best leader's work is done the people say,
           We did it ourselves!”

                                              ― Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu