Tags
Alexander the Great, Giordano Bruno, Gordian Knot, Leader, Leadership, Leonidas, Minister, President, Roman Republic, Rome
English: Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, Gauteng, on 13 May 1998 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For most of people Leader means head of a group. An organization head or perhaps, just a team head. Also, when we hear the word leader, usually we think in titles like President, manager, boss, coordinator; or in military terms could be a General, commander, captain, etc.
History tells us that in fact, titles don’t make leaders.
Coming back to Roman Republic days, we can find battles like Cannae or Arausio; names that meant shame and death for Romans in those days. Biggest Roman defeats in all Rome history, produced by inept Generals, with a 155.000 casualties cost.
Nowadays we have presidents, ministers, and managers, in business or politics where in most of cases they were not only unsuitable, but also corrupt.
Then it’s not about titles. So, what does it mean leadership?
I think is not only the head of a group. If we see ourselves, consciously we use our heads to think and make decisions; after this process what we have to do is take actions, not to think. So leader is not only head, also heart and will of a team.
Leader thinks and make decisions, has knowledge and vision about where they have to go, but also is their heart. Encourages and inspires his team; light up fire of enthusiasm in their hearts, making them vibrate.
Besides, leader is will in a team. Is the power that integrates each team member, so together achieve what is impossible for others.
To do that, a real leader needs to have a clear mind, learn to know and hear his own heart and conquer will inside him.
Like Alexander the Great cutting the Gordian knot or King Arthur, removing Excalibur from stone. As Leonidas, defeating death at Thermopylae; or like Giordano Bruno giving his life to philosophy.
Giordano Bruno (Photo credit: kajojak)
Every one of us, with our small victories like stairs, is walking to conquer the great victory over ourselves.
To finish, I want to share a fragment from Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, about what a real king (in this case leader) is:
“I will tell His Majesty what a king is. A king does not abide within his tent while his men bleed and die upon the field. A king does not dine while his men go hungry, nor sleep when they stand at watch upon the wall. A king does not command his men’s loyalty through fear nor purchase it with gold; he earns their love by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endures for their sake. That which comprises the harshest burden, a king lifts first and sets down last. A king does not require service of those he leads but provides it to them. He serves them, not they him.”
