A leader for our times
WE need a credible leader for our times. As the general elections draw ever closer, we need to choose someone who can lead the country out of its current dol- drums to a development stage that we deserve. It’s great to have charisma, it’s important to be honest and it’s also good to try hard even if one is not a genius or a superhero. But one thing is crucial: it is necessary to have a visible and credible leader who commands the respect of the people and the world.
Filipinos tend to forget the past and that is why we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. We joke and make light of things and matters that must be taken seriously are often disregarded or ignored. It is much easier to laugh things away. Moreover, the tendency to blame others will not make this country’s problems go away. So, shouldn’t a responsible leader come to the fore?
Leadership must be perceived. It is not a quality that automatically comes when a person is elected to high office. People know and can see that quality in a person, however highly or humbly placed that person may be. Can leadership be learned?
A number of management tomes and gurus have enumerated the qualities of a leader. Vision, integrity, maturity, initiative, organizational skills, ability to listen to others including acceptance of criticism, transformational capacity and tolerance are just a few of what have been extensively written about.
The book The Leadership Wisdom of Jesus, by Charles C. Manz (1998), concentrates on empowering leaders as suggested by the teachings of Jesus. Manz introduces his book as “a call to wise and compassionate leadership.”
The first step to becoming a leader, he said, is to look in the mirror and to take the advice, “First take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” Manz suggests that we are ignoring our own log by presuming that we should direct and control others when we haven’t even bothered to explore our own humanness and shortcomings. Leadership should be exercised out of a sense of caring and commitment to the wellbeing of those being led.
He further advises that “effective leadership requires compassion.” When flawed human beings begin to lead other flawed human beings, compassion is the only dependable leadership ingredient that flows from real wisdom. He suggests that real leadership comes from within and that wise leaders lead others to lead themselves.
A mark of a leader, he adds, is the ability to forgive and then see opportunities for learning in the mistakes of followers. Wise leaders foster followers’ commitment and teamwork. Finally, Manz says that wise leadership involves planting good seeds in good places at the right times and then letting great things grow.
Mistakes have indeed been made and past errors need to be corrected. It is necessary to move on, true, but in doing so we need a leader who should have all the qualities mentioned by the gurus of management and leadership. Most importantly, this leader should be in command, be visible and — heeding the lessons of Manz — be compassionate.
The national elections are just a few months away and we hope that voters look at the characters aspiring for leadership and see if they possess those qualities. Hopefully, voters will not be deceived by fraudulent blandishments, or worse, get coerced or blinded by pittances handed out by some candidates.
I must add and emphasize that the leader we should elect must be God-fearing. The fate of our nation depends on having the right person lead us.