To lead people, walk beside them ...
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
The next best, the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear;
and the next, the people hate ...
When the best leader's work is done the people say,
"We did it ourselves!"
- Lao-tsu

Jingshen is the Mandarin word for spirit and vivacity. It is an important word for those who would lead, because above all things, spirit and vivacity set effective organizations apart from those that will decline and die.  

- James L. Hayes Memos for Management: Leadership

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.  - Albert Einstein

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.  
- Marian Anderson

We must become the change we want to see.  
- Mahatma Gandhi

I believe there are three categories of people: great leaders, great leaders who go sour, and potential leaders who choose not to lead or learn how to lead. Not everyone chooses to become a leader. We may all have the potential to become a leader, for leadership is not a trait someone is born with or cannot learn. Some people may have a greater ability to lead based on their personal characteristics and background, but anyone who wants to become a leader can do so with patience and discipline. It is as the saying goes: we cannot have leaders if there is no one to follow. There are leaders who are superb organizers, orators, and mobilizers, yet who use their leadership skills for inhumanity and suffering. Examples of just a few of the most notorious of these of leaders are Adolf Hitler, Milosevic, Stalin, Benito Mussolini, William Joseph Simmons, Augusto Pinochet, Pol Pot, Omar al-Bashir, and Vlad the Impaler. There are also leaders who work in the interest of the people, who let greed and personal interest beat out their desire to lead for a greater good. And then there are leaders who, depending on where you are standing, have sought to change our world for the better, in the interest of those they lead. Gandhi may come to mind, or Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Ronald Regan, John Wooden, Margaret Thatcher, Cesar Chavez, Mother Theresa, John Kennedy, or Barack Obama.

Although we may be able to lump leaders in categories of good and bad, leadership is also incredibly subjective. What may be great leadership to one individual may be seen as poor leadership to another individual. It depends on how we are looking at leadership, and what perspective we are coming from. That said, there are some universal characteristics that make great leaders, can make us all better leaders in our own lives.

John Wooden, the men’s basketball coach at UCLA from 1964 to 1975, noted that a leader’s main profit is his/her people, and there are 10 tips that will make every individual a better leader.

 1) The first of these is the ability to listen. It is perhaps one of the most overlooked characteristics of leaders, but the ability to listen is important to those under supervision who put their trust in the leader to take them towards their goal.

2) The second is to recognize good deeds, good work, and positive thinking and show appreciation for accomplishment.

3) The third is to care. Great leaders will show they care for their people and make them feel that they are needed. It is not about saying that you care as a leader. It is about showing it.

4) The fourth point is to prepare. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

5) The fifth is to work hard (be industrious). Little can be accomplished without hard work, and the leader must be willing to work harder than the rest of his/her team.

6) The sixth point is to have enthusiasm. Wooden writes that leaders must have a joy in what they are doing to inspire others to do their best.

7) The seventh is patience. This is often the hardest point to learn, but time and maturity will teach us all patience, for all good things take time.

8)The eighth is to have confidence. A great leader must believe in themselves and act with confidence to inspire others to do so.

9) The ninth point is that a leader must not fear failure. Wooden writes that we are all going to fail at times because we are all imperfect, but that it is learning from these imperfections which make us better leaders.

10) Finally, the last point is to win respect. Respect takes honesty, and it takes respect for those under your supervision in return. Those under a leader’s supervision must be able to depend on a leader and earn respect from them.

It is important to note that leadership traits can be seen not only in the human race, but all around us. There are leaders in nature as well as among humanity. There are leaders in every species known to man, and there are lessons we can learn from nature that will not only make us better leaders, but which will enhance our appreciation for the world around us. Take a look and delve into the natural world, and you will see that even in nature, you will be able to find the universal characteristics that make great and successful leaders.

Leadership Testimonial

What does Leadership mean to me?

In my opinion, an effective leader shows not only concern for production, but focuses also on the people. With an effective team management style, a leader can maximize both these goals. When a leader communicates, it is not only important that we look at what he says, it is also important how it is being said and how strong his delivery style is, e.g. eye contact, appropriate use of facial expressions, gestures, and increased vocal variety. To make communication most effective, using visionary content instead of pragmatic content is in my opinion the most effective approach.

Effective leaders always know where they are and where they want to go. They pay attention to the context, recognize times and situations in which there are opportunities for shaping meaning or when there are constraints. Effective leaders use language in ways that manage meaning in powerful and appropriate ways.

This class taught me visualization just as an artist works from a palette of colors to paint a picture. When I think of a project, I can now dream it first and I see it unfold right before my eyes. What a powerful tool right at our fingertips.

Survival Training

            Just as young birds learn their survival skills from their parents, children learn to increase their interaction, habits and behaviors with others by observing and following the example of their parents. They also learn to avoid following the example of those who are not considered exactly what one would consider a role model. Encouraged by their parents, they watch, observe and adept to their environment. A leader takes on the role of a parent alike. He or she serves as a role model, showing how to behave, what to do and what not to do in order to “survive” in the work environment.

How does a young bird learn what its predators are, what to ignore, what to mob, what to flee? Through a series of clever experiments using mirrors, scientist discovered that young birds learn these things by observing older birds. When older birds in a cage were shown a stuffed owl, they started mobbing it. Younger birds watching from an adjacent cage could not see the owl; what they saw instead was a reflection in a set of mirrors that made it look as if the older birds were mobbing a milk can. Later, a milk can put in the cage with the younger birds was mobbed with all the enthusiasm that normally greets an owl. After the first experiment, mirrors were no longer necessary to fool the younger birds. Other young birds learned to mob the milk can by simply watching the birds than had been fooled with mirrors (Able et al.)

The lesson we humans can learn from this example in nature is that we learn who is best for us by observing our own leadership and following their example. Birds learn from their parents how to recognize the predator and how to survive in an environment that might be live threatening. Whether in the political arena or in the work place, role models are imperative and essential to insure that we are fit and prepared to distinguish the good from the bad.

Able, B. Kenneth, et. al. The Birds Around Us. San Francisco: Ortho Books. 
             1986.

Hovering Flight

            The comparison between a “Servant Leader” and a parent is not too far fetched if one considers that leadership based on collaboration, trust, empathy, and the ethical use of power are the common goal of both parties. Leading by better serving others, rather than forcing or pushing, and not to raise their own power, is a mutual objective to enhance the growth of individuals in the organization, or family, to increases teamwork and personal involvement. In other words; parents have every quality we would like to see in a servant leader that follows their loved and entrusted ones through a journey of live long learning.

            In hovering flight, a bird generates its own lift by means of rapid wingbeats. Holding its body nearly vertical, with its wings firmly, flexed at the elbow joint, a hovering bird moves its wing surfaces forward and back in a horizontal plane; each of the two phases of the stroke generates lift. It is only in hummingbirds that nature has structured the wings in such a way that when in motion they can act like a perfect lifting rotor. Their pointed wings do not flap and glide as other bird wings do, but propel them through the air by moving up and down, up and down, at a furious rate of 70 times a second. After feeding at a flower they can fly backward, climb vertically, turn at lightning speed, and come to a sudden standstill in midair. Hummbingbirds have been known to fly up to speed of 60 miles per hour in a tail wind. No bird of prey even attempts to catch a hummingbird in flight. The human eye is incapable of deciphering exactly how a hummingbird’s wing beat, since they move so quickly, but slow-motion photography has unveiled the secret: Viewed from the side, the hummingbird beats its wing back and forth in a horizontal figure eight, producing lift on both the forward and backward strokes (Able et al.)

            The lesson we humans can learn from this example in nature is that servant leadership is about being present without the threat of intrusion or intimidation. Just like the hummingbird can fly backward, climb vertically, turn at lightning speed, and come to a sudden standstill in midair, the servant leader, as an ever present figure, stays close to his team members and is ready to create a lift when needed the most.

Able, B. Kenneth, et. al. The Birds Around Us. San Francisco: Ortho Books.  
             1986.

The Butterfly Story
Author: Unknown
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Life's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

A true leader does not enable his followers but steps back and allows them to thrive and  build leadership skills in order for them to one day lead.

Leaders aren't born, they are made.
And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.
And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.
-Vincent Lombardi

A leader is just a person without a team to follow their inspiration. To get a team to follow them they must exhibit many characteristics such as charisma, trust, vision,confidence and most importantly in my opinion, an environment for people to succeed.

To create a good environment, great leaders must instill their own qualities in their team to bring them together. Team members who share the same vision as their leader will have that same desire to accomplish their goals. Leaders want the team to be confident in their own progress and feel as if they are apart of the project.

In the end when the goals have been met, the feeling of success will radiate throughout the team. Being the responsible parties, the team now owns that feeling of recognition and accomplishment.

"I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." --Ralph Nader

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, theywill say: we did it ourselves." --Lao Tzu

Communication at a leadership level must be highly adaptable to particular situations. And really exceptional leadership communication is both innovative and constatnly evolving, much like the example of  Koko, the gorilla, who has learned to communicate with sign language utilyzing a myriad of methods. 

The following is taken from the website Koko’s World (http://www.koko.org/world/)

“The Gorilla Language Project is both an effort to gather data about gorilla language and a case study of observed gorilla behavior and utterances. All signs, the context in which they occurred, the number of repetitions, and anything unusual that might have occurred during signing are recorded daily. The project administers informal and formal tests of vocabulary comprehension and of the understanding of relationships between objects and words, as well as standard child intelligence tests. There are also periodic video-taped sessions and audio-taped recordings.

During the course of the study, Koko has advanced further with language than any other non-human. Koko has a working vocabulary of over 1000 signs. Koko understands approximately 2,000 words of spoken English. Koko initiates the majority of conversations with her human companions and typically constructs statements averaging three to six words. Koko has a tested IQ of between 70 and 95 on a human scale, where 100 is considered "normal." Michael, the male silverback gorilla who grew up with Koko, had a working vocabulary of over 600 signs.”

If leaders are to be successful, then different methods of communication must be constantly employed in an effort to effectively inspire and motivate one’s employees to achieve the stated goals of the organization.  As the real-life example of Koko demonstrates, communication at the leadership level can be as simple or as complex as the situation dictates (see below). 

“In addition to intensive studies of vocabulary acquisition, the project has investigated spontaneous gorilla language use. This involves the study of innovative linguistic strategies, invention of new signs and compound words, simultaneous signing, self-directed signing, displacement, prevarication, reference to time and emotional states, gestural modulation, metaphorical word use, humor, definition, argument, insult, threat, fantasy play, storytelling and moral judgment. The depth and variety of gorilla language use has significantly exceeded initial expectations. Indeed, evidence has been found for the existence, in less developed form, of almost every aspect of human behavior.”