Leadership Credo

Here's my oh so reluctant stab at naming what I think "leaders" should be held accountable to, that I had to do for class.

I believe leadership is an unhelpful word. In all parts of our life, we follow, are followed and struggle for unity – and diversity.

I believe that wanting to be liked is not a sin, and should not deter from offering one’s voice.

I believe fear of responsibility is not a sin and should not deter from offering one’s service.

I believe self-righteousness is not a virtue and should not guarantee words being heeded.

I believe being able to “power-through” is not a virtue and should not guarantee dictates being obeyed.

I believe our inability to gauge one another’s value and our tendency to miscalculate our own, is a fact and should not deter us from trying to listen and trying to speak.

I believe charisma is not a measure of one’s ability to guide others, nor introversion the mark of an administrator.

I believe vision without action is nonsense, and action without vision is laziness.

I believe the greater effort is to become one who can be converted, rather than one who converts.

No one is always a leader and never a follower, thus the term leadership is a deficient construct that serves only to exalt one perspective (or person) at the cost of lowering another.

Therefore, I believe the process of guiding and being guided is an ever-expanding movement towards maturity through humility.