“Leadership is not contingent upon one’s official titles or positions. Instead, it encompasses the ability to inspire and uplift individuals within one’s sphere of influence, while making a positive impact on their lives.” – Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio
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During the second half of the nineteenth century, two strong politicians vied for leadership of Great Britain’s government: William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. The two men were intense rivals.
In a career lasting over sixty years, Gladstone served as Prime Minister four separate times, the only person who made such distinction. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times.
Gladstone is famous for his oratory, his religiosity, his liberalism, his rivalry with the Conservative Leader Benjamin Disraeli, and for his poor relations with Queen Victoria, who once complained, “He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting.”
Britain’s oldest Prime Minister, he was known affectionately by his supporters as “G.O.M.” which stands for Grand Old Man. But to his rival Disraeli, G.O.M. means “God’s Old Mistake.”
Disraeli twice served as Britain’s Prime Minister. A writer and aristocrat, he played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs and his one-nation conservatism or “Tory democracy.” He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire.
The conservative politician had throughout his career written novels, beginning in 1826. He published his last completed novel, entitled Endymion, shortly before he died at the age of 76.
“Though both men accomplished much for Britain, what really separated them as leaders was their approach to people,” wrote John C. Maxwell in one of his best-selling books on leadership.
Maxwell cited the difference through a story told by a young woman who dined with the two rival politicians on consecutive nights. “When asked her impression of them, she said, ‘When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England,” wrote Maxwell. “But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England.”
In his introduction of the book, Maxwell wrote: “Everything rises and falls on leadership. And leadership truly develops from the inside out. If you can become the leader, you ought to be on the inside, you will be able to become the leader you want to be on the outside. People will want to follow you. And when that happens, you’ll be able to tackle anything in this world.”
American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Theodore Roosevelt, once observed: “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.”
To be a leader is a great responsibility. That was the reason why Moses questioned God when He told him “to bring my people out of Egypt.” He asked God: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt.”
You know the rest of the story.
A person doesn’t become a leader right there and then. “Leadership,” defines Peter Drucker, an Austrian-born American management consultant, “is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
A good leader possesses some characteristics which should go beyond what an ordinary person has. “The challenge of leadership,” said American author and motivational speaker Jim Rohn, “is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”
Remember Alexander the Great? He was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, who 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.” – ###
