LEADERSHIP

We have reached a real low point in leadership, lower than at any other time in recent history. A leader, is an individual who upholds what is best for all people, even if it may not be in his or her own interest to do so. A leadership role must be approached as a temporary role, preserving something greater than the self—principles of enduring and lasting value. This embodies an attitude that focuses on the task at hand and not on what the leader may gain from the position. This idea seems at odds with what we see happening around us. In all too many arenas, we see leaders holding nothing in trust for those they purport to serve, instead merely advancing their own ideals and hopes. It is often difficult to tell whether our leaders are serving themselves or us. And it is all too common to find leaders simply helping themselves to privilege, prosperity and power. Where are our leaders leading?Throughout time, leaders who have exhibited the proper kind of custodianship—that is, leaders who have sought service over self-interest—have been held in high regard. People have gladly looked to them for direction and guidance in times of indecision and turmoil.One such custodian stood out in the fifth-century B.C. Roman republic. The Roman army was surrounded, and the country was in need of a leader who would seize the moment and turn impending defeat into victory. They called upon a man who was out plowing his field, a farmer named Cincinnatus. He came. He saw. He conquered. He went home. Cincinnatus gained fame for his selfless devotion to his country. This half-legendary hero gave his all in a time of crisis, and then, when the task was done, he gave up the reins of power and went back to his plow.A more modern example is America's first president, George Washington . Washington was an aristocratic gentleman farmer of distinctive character. When called upon to defend the interests of a fledgling nation as commander in chief of the Revolutionary army during the American War of Independence, he rose to the challenge and persevered against all odds. Then, after eight and a half years of being the most powerful man in America, he resigned his commission and returned to his agricultural pursuits. Not surprisingly, he was the automatic and unanimous choice to become the first president of the United States. He served two terms, and following this supreme act of service to his country, like Cincinnatus (to whom he had often been compared by his contemporaries), he stepped out of the limelight and retired to his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.Washington is remembered for his strength of character and discipline, his loyal patriotism, his principled leadership and his selfless devotion to public duty. He held in trust for the American people the very values and beliefs that made their nation possible, without regard for his own gain.True leadership is and always has been a selfless action. It involves taking yourself out of the picture and considering the needs of others. It is a way of thinking that takes other people into account even when your own needs are pressing. It asks what is right or best in the wider interest.Yet it would be difficult to build a consensus as to how a leader might accomplish this—how a leader might be a custodian of or hold in trust a nation's or a group's values and beliefs.How might we answer this question in a world that has seemingly grown unmanageable? Today our world is faced with serious, even life-threatening problems of a global nature.Clearly leadership is an issue that affects all of us. Not only are we impacted by it, but we are also called upon to exercise it. Whether we are involved in leading government or business; guiding young minds; leading a family, a sports team or a committee; organizing a dinner, a class project, a carpool or a household; or just standing for what is right—everyone has a leadership role to play. We are each thrust into many different leadership roles again and again throughout our lives. We are each called upon to be custodians of what is right and good, lasting and of value, for those in our care.When we are called upon to lead, what kind of custodian we are will depend greatly on what we understand a custodian to be, how we think about other people, and how we determine what is right and worth holding in trust.The word custodian, in this context, is the same as the word steward as it is used in the Bible and throughout history. A custodian or steward watches over that which is placed in his or her trust by the one who owns it or for those who will benefit by it. Stewardship is a service performed for others. It is not about ownership or control. It is not a technique. It is who and what the leader is. It is an attitude—a state of being—a way of looking at the world. But it is not the passive, hands-off leadership that some have attributed to this way of thinking. It is a component of leadership without which leaders cannot fully function.In the widening chasm between what we want and expect from our leaders and what we are getting, it seems only natural to take a hard look at leadership itself. And many do. Finding that the leadership we see around us is lacking, we think that traditional views of leadership must be inadequate and outworn. Out of sheer frustration, we toss out many traditional ideas for new and, we hope, improved ideas of what leadership is all about. Because we believe there are problems with what leaders are doing, the faults of the old views seem sufficient to float the new. Yet these new ideas all too often prove to be ineffective.When we are given any leadership responsibility, we, too, are obliged to maintain a set of standards that is in line with higher laws. Again, we. should not impose our own thinking and desires on those we lead, but rather apply those standards that were designed to be best for the whole. Naturally they should be implemented with respect for, and in two-way communication with, those we serve.True leadership does not take away the freedom, choice, accountability or responsibility of others. Just as leaders should serve and take into account the ideas and needs of those they lead, those following that lead should do the same thing. In doing so, they, along with the leader, practice self-restraint, develop character, integrate discipline, and practice love and respect for other people. This creates a kind of self-leadership at all levels of the group. It promotes an environment where all are empowered and working toward the good of the whole because that is in the best interest of all.What is critical to the leadership process and its success is where the values come from that determine these boundaries. They can't come from a single individual. Nor can they come from the collective whole.George Washington believed that those values and boundaries came from God. Again, truly effective boundaries must come from something outside of ourselves. An effective leader has an agenda designed to produce results, but is guided by a core of values that come from outside and not from within. This process is maintained by means of the leader's integrity—his custodianship of those values.