Attributes of Good Leadership

Attributes of Good Leadership:

     The world is broadly divided into two classes of people - leaders and followers. The questions are: what can make one to be described as a good leader? What makes a good leader?

     Leadership, when viewed from a distance looks so simple and uncomplicated. There is no doubt that leadership is neither an act of merriment nor a tea party. It is a complicated and tactical task placed by the people on few individuals. Those who usually constitute the leadership of any government or society are less than one percent of the population while the rest are the supervisors. There is no doubt that an act of leadership is demanding, answering, accounting, challenging and stressfu

      A handful of persons are being supervised by millions of people, both the informed and uninformed who easily forget the good deeds of government immediately they are out of their sight. Some do not see any positive thing government is doing but always alert to record and pinpoint any negative issue as a point of departure for criticizing the existing government. That is why Machiavelli says that men in general judge by their eyes rather than by their hands; because everyone is in a position to watch, few are in a position to come in close touch with you. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

     The challenges leaders encounter, especially in this contemporary human society, cannot be over emphasized. The most unfortunate thing is that the few know these challenges while the rest believe that it is pure merriment. The majority of people usually forget that the monkey sweats but it is only the hair on its body that deceives the world.

     Despite this every minute’s challenges, somebody must lead others so that the journey will start because every society has somewhere it is going to (either forward or backward). How fortunate are the people who are being led by a person that has vision.

This shows that we have two types of leaders: visionary and myopic leaders. The former are those who know the way, show the way, and go the way while the latter are those who resign to fate, religion and fortune. They cannot see beyond today’s problems.

     The question is: what are those attributes that make one to be a good leader? Since the visionless (the blind) and visionaries can lead, there must be certain attributes that separate one from the other. It is no longer in the good olden days where the blind do not lead those who can see. Unlike then, in this contemporary society the blind lead those who can see, which may be due to their socio-political and economic status or by birth right or via crookedness.