7 billion people, 7 billion ideas on leadership. Leadership is the new occupation we must learn to embrace.
When I was young, I believed leadership was leading an army, the likes of Alexander the great and Sir Winston Churchill. Times changed and leadership became creating a $ 400 billion empire, the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
So what is leadership? Is it all that it could be? The good news is it isn’t. Leadership runs deep as the ocean, wide as the sky and endless as the universe. It’s hard to condense it in words that fit the world.
Leadership is more like the air we breathe. Its omnipresent, residing everywhere. But the trick is, its invisible. And so are most of the figures of leaders in our lives. A few tornadoes come up in the society, destroying the outdated theories, while paving a new path. But one must never forget that it’s the air that keeps us alive.
Everyday that leader inside of us makes a bargain, a bargain of our lives with death. And until the end of our times, that leader shall reign victor. We’ve all been touched by the undying charm of leadership and the sparks lay within us.
Leadership is also like a game of chess. The most valuable piece – the king, the most powerful – the queen. The queen is worth 8 pawns. But leadership is understanding the fact that there is no potential difference between a pawn and a queen, despite their given power and position in the game. It is leadership to understand that at times the pawn can crown your victory, while your queen lays paralyzed.
Leadership is also visible on the roads. Leadership is not speeding beyond your control because you know that there are others on their journeys too. In fact leadership is putting the plastic wrapper in your pockets if you happen to eat something on the road and cant spot a garbage can nearby.
Leadership was when you were asked to introduce yourself on the first day of school. Your heart pounding, legs shaking and all the cells on your body too nervous to utter a single word, but you did it anyway. And funnily most of the ones misheard your name. Leadership is embracing new environments understanding that you will soon figure out some of your best allies and best enemies too.
Leadership is simple I say, found in some of the most subtle aspects of life. Its leadership when you tell your friend that exams are near we must study. Its leadership when you walk on the correct side of the road.
Leadership is dragging one out of the comfort zone, doing what is right. Leadership is courage, virtue, righteousness.
It is all that and even more. Leadership is the air we breathe, most of the times invisible and yet we all possess these qualities, the simple qualities that most of the times are overlooked.
Da Vinci once said, ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’ We are the simple leaders with the simple qualities. And yet it’s the air that keeps us burning everyday. There are exceptions, and we are yet elegant, and radiant.
The Wordcastle 