Thursday, December 15, 2011

Leaders Come in All Shapes and Forms

Leadership style is not about fashion. It is about meeting the needs of followers and organizations. The demand of the situation, requirements of people, and particular challenges being faced result in a multitude of leadership style possibilities.

Plato reminds us that the unexamined life is not worth living. If you or I spent 27 years locked away in deprivation, we would have plenty of time to examine ourselves. Nelson Mandela was such a man. He faced enough trouble for several lifetimes of examination. Yet he was able to liberate a country from violent prejudice. He united whites and blacks, oppressors and oppressed. He believed that overthrowing apartheid and creating a nonracial democratic South Africa "was not a question of principle; it was a question of tactics."

Leaders come in all shapes and forms and intellectual directions. Like Mandela, leaders have the power to change people.

No comments: