The PURPOSE of Leadership?
Welcome to Leadership Weekly Note #13 of 2023!
You will recall that in the first Note in this three-part series on the Purpose of Leadership, you met my three Ferraris — Janis the yellow one, her crimson sister Emmanuella, and Shumacher’s F1, Zinzi.
Furthermore, I insinuated that leadership comes with benefits – like a Sunday drive in my Ferrari, or my snow-skiing holiday in Austria.
The purpose of leadership — of being an uber leader like me — is to be the prime beneficiary of all that I crave. Otherwise, why would I lead?
Surely, since human #1, people have pillaged and murdered and concocted all manner of social constructs to be ‘the leader’, so leadership’s purpose must be the accumulation of power and possessions – including the ownership of people.
Sorry, I got it wrong.
The purpose of leadership is to serve…
or just maybe to entice others over the precipice.
Perhaps real’ leadership is found in the lives of Mahatma Ghandhi and Mother Terresa — selfless slaves, serfs, and servants to the rest of the universe.
So, I got it wrong. The purpose of leadership has nothing to do with the accumulation of wealth, possessions, and power over people. That is the old way. Gone.
But, maybe, just maybe, modern leadership is being able to entice the crowd — the milling millions who imagine they are unique, but fit the same mould — to follow us over the precipice.
Before you imagine I am schizophrenic — neither the Ferrari way nor the slave route nor the lemming option fulfil the purpose of leadership!
The purpose of influential leadership is also not a compromise amongst the ones I have illustrated.
The purpose of influential leadership stands on its own.
However, I am afraid that you will have to wait for LWN #14 for that discussion.
In the meanwhile, those of you who have completed Alpha (or got past Module 2) will recall that the Truman Principle is the foundation of influential leadership’s purpose.
For those who are not familiar with the Principle, see if you can work it out by trawling around the WWW. Hint. The principle is derived from a statement about leadership made by Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the USA. See what you can do.
Be neither a slave to others nor to your basic instincts.
Be no serf to master or mistress, of whatever hue.
Be a servant to none except your principles.
Follow not, travel alongside.
Lead, with others.
Regards,
Colin Donian
Shaping lives for the better
