In 1940, there was a leadership crisis in the British Parliament. Seventy-seven-year-old David Lloyd George, who listened to the debate, had led Britain to victory in World War I, and his many years in politics enabled him to evaluate the work of high officials.
In a speech to the House of Commons on May 8, he stated: “The nation is prepared for every sacrifice so long as it has leadership, so long as the Government shows clearly what they are aiming at and so long as the nation is confident that those who are leading it are doing their best.”
Watchtower Magazine, in its November 1, 2004 issue, recalled the incident. The author wrote: “The words of Lloyd George make it clear that people expect their leaders to be competent and to make honest efforts to try to improve things. An election campaign worker put it this way: ‘When people cast a vote for president, they are casting a vote for someone in whom they are entrusting their lives, their future, their children.’
“Our world is beset with problems that defy solutions,” the author continued. “What leader, for example, has proved himself so wise and powerful that he can eradicate crime and war? Who among today’s leaders has the resources and compassion to provide every human with food, clean water, and health care? Who has the knowledge and determination to protect and restore the environment? Who is competent and powerful enough to ensure that all mankind enjoy a long and happy life?”
American president Harry S Truman once said: “Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
Remember Alexander the Great? He was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of 20.
He conquered most of the known world of his day. As a leader, he was feared and yet admired by his soldiers. And so, it came to pass that Alexander the Great and his army were dying of thirst after marching eleven days.
Suddenly, they came upon some local farmers who were fetching skins full of water from a hidden river. Seeing the famous general choked with thirst, they offered him a helmet filled with water. He asked them to whom they were carrying the water. They told him, “To our children. But your life is more important than theirs. Even if they all perish, we can raise a new generation.”
Then Alexander took the helmet into his hands and looked around to see all his soldiers eyeing the water and licking their dry lips. He didn’t have the courage to drink, but gave back the water untouched to the farmers. “If only I would drink,” he explained, “the rest of the soldiers would be out of heart.”
At that, the soldiers rallied around him as never before and defied their fatigue and their thirst. “To follow such a leader is a great privilege,” they chorused.
Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, said it well: “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie has the same opinion. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” American businessman Arnold H. Glasow said it, too: “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.”
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things,” said Ronald Reagan, the Hollywood actor who became the president of the United States.
Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe, also said: “Power isn’t control at all — power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others so that they may have the strength to stand on their own.”
“A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him,” Bandon Sanderson, author of The Well of Ascension wrote. “All of the brilliant ideas in the world cannot save your kingdom if no one will listen to them.”
John Holt, the man behind Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling, gives this insight: “Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along 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, stubbornness, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head, even when things are going badly. True leaders, in short, do not make people into followers, but into other leaders.”
A disciple of Confucius asked the master: “What are the basic ingredients of good government?”
He answered: “Sufficient food, sufficient weapons, and the confidence of the people.”
“But,” continued the disciple, “suppose you had to dispense with one of these three things, which would you forego?”
“Weapons,” said the master.
The disciple persisted, “Suppose then, that you were forced to choose between the two left, which would you forEgo?”
Confucius answered, “Food. From old, death has been the lot of all men, but people that no longer trust its rulers are lost, indeed.”
Famous people from the past have shared some thoughts about being a leader. American President Abraham Lincoln suggested: “Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but leave him when he is wrong.”
