“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” ― Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
I’m taking a class on leadership, ethics and social responsibility this semester. Several weeks into class discussions and textbook readings and various assignments, I find myself asking two questions: First, what is a leader? And second, what makes a leader great? (If you can read that word in Tony the Tiger’s voice you get extra credit.)
At its most basic definition, a leader is “someone or something that goes first.” Somehow in our modern vernacular we’ve erased the idea that a leader “goes first” and substituted the idea that a leader is someone who manages or controls others. Telling other people what to do is not the same as “going first.”
There are few things more annoying than hypocritical leaders who espouse a “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy. We see it in religious leaders who demand holiness and adherence to dogma and creed from their followers while failing to practice what they preach. We see it in politicians who want to wield the hammer of power and might in the name of country or state, but take no consideration for the harm that comes to “the least of these” — their own followers — in the process. It’s the awful boss from “Office Space,” the “I’m gonna need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow,” guy. There are a lot of people wearing “leader” labels who aren’t actually leaders at all; they’re just bossy, power-hungry middle managers.
Real leaders have something that’s more powerful than man-made authority: they have influence. How do they get that influence? They’re willing to go first, to set the example, to show — not tell — the way forward, and that willingness to practice what they preach gives them the characteristic that makes a leader truly great: humility.
The greatest leaders of all time… not the ones who’ve broken stuff and started wars and elevated themselves above everyone else… all share the characteristic of humility: “a modest or low view of one’s own importance; humbleness.” Moses, arguably one of history’s greatest examples of true leadership, was referred to as “very meek, above all the men on the face of the earth.”
The opposite of humility is hubris, which means “pride, insolence or outrage” or “a dangerous overconfidence and complacency, often in combination with arrogance.” If that doesn’t describe the attitude of a pseudo-leader I don’t know what does.
Where are the humble leaders today? Look for them. Become them. Go first, set the example, lead the way.
