What leadership means to me

"What is a warrior of light?"

"You already know that," she replied with a smile. “He is someone capable of understanding the miracle of life, of fighting to the last for something he believes in and of hearing the bells that the waves set ringing on the seabed”

He had never thought of himself as a warrior of light. The woman seemed to have read his mind.

“Everyone is capable of these things. And, though no one thinks of themselves as the warrior of light, we all are” - PAULO COELHO

 People say leadership is the ability to guide people, to show them the way, or to control them.  They say it’s an inborn talent, and so they classify those few people, leaving the others doomed to be nothing more than followers. Why can’t a quiet person be a leader?  A responsible leader is one who observes and learns, “Shallow waters run deep”. If a person is jovial, it shows an easy going attitude.  After all, if the strings of an instrument are always taut, they go out of tune.

So what are the qualities that crown a leader? I say, there are no such qualities.  The simple key towards this greatness is responsibility. “Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power”. Indeed the latin roots of the word reveal its meanings, the capacity to respond and react. So for me, leadership means taking responsibility, the first step being personal responsibility. For until you have learned to control your own self and channelize your energy in to positive directions no one will want to follow you.  

Leadership requires attitude change.  A simple “I can” does not suffice, it must be, “I will!”  You must create the drive to turn aspiration into actuality and flip perceptions to believe in what must be done. In this journey, you realize who you are and treasure trust as your greatest gift.

I never thought of myself as a leader, for I lacked orator skills. I was bubbling with ideas but alas! I could only write. No one remembers the person who writes the speech. It is the person who makes it his own, who’s remembered. It was up to the leader to choose the idea. I was merely a supplier. And every time, my confidence would ebb to a new low.

I am eternally grateful to the teacher who introduced me to the School of Leadership and led me to participate in the First Junior Leader’s Conference. At first, I thought it was a terrible mistake. I couldn’t express my feelings clearly to my friends, how would I guide strangers to a good cause? But once I got there, I broke through the barrier and gained enough confidence to hold my own. Once I’d gained faith, it was easy enough to gain trust.

 In the conference, they made teams, gave us separate squares to stand in and announced the beginning of a battle. Our weapons were hundreds of balls and our objective was to ensure that not a single ball was in our square by the ending time. Sure enough, as the battle began, everyone started pelting each other with balls. But no matter how hard or how far we threw them, they would always return. All of us had no chance to win and at the end of the battle everyone had lost. That was when our coordinator came and expressed his views. The only way to defeat our enemies was to take the weapons away from them and use them at the last moment. So he went back to the corner and started collecting the balls. He pitched a team of coordinators against all of us and began the battle again. At first we took advantage but soon all the weapons were in their hands. As the countdown hit 5 they let loose our artillery and by 1 all our squares were full. The battle had ended and they had won. And that was when i realized what the real thing was. Sure, there's always quick thinking and practicality involved. But the main thing, is to take responsibility, others will automatically trust you. And once you've earned that, your motive is to never let them down.