Leadership has been studied for decades that by now we know what works best, and yet, we know we don’t always have the best leaders. Of course, when we consider this, we typically fault the leaders, and while a lot of the fault is theirs, it is not theirs alone. In a time where our system of government and life is under pressure, we need to step back and refocus our attention on “we the people,” because it was we who conceptualized, designed and fought for this incredible democracy. We own this, and we are ultimately responsible for putting great leaders in place to lead great people.
In our democracy, leaders are chosen by the people with the purpose of representing the people. They are, in essence, to be an extension of the people. Hence, what the people think, and who and what they want are key drivers to the success of our democracy. Without “the people” a democracy won’t work. This, then, places a tremendous amount of responsibility on, not only the leaders, but the followers because the leaders will ultimately gravitate toward the standard that they are expected to lead by. Today we seem to be in a moment which has fostered a type of leader who will say and do anything in the name of freedom, with little or no respect for that freedom. What is the check and balance to leadership unhinged? Strong, engaged, and principled followership.
We need to begin with an understanding of the type of leaders we would like to have. Of course, there will be many differing opinions about this, but I think we can agree with the top qualities. Years of research has shown integrity, ethics, inspirational, knowledge, communication, optimism, and vision are consistently on the list with integrity and honesty, being the most desired. How often do we see our leaders display these, or better yet how often do we see a lack of integrity, honesty, and ethical behavior? So, the bigger question is if these are so called “must haves” for our leaders, why are they not present. Why is this not the gold standard that they are held to?
Our leaders will act to the standard we set, expect, and uphold. This is our responsibility as a society and good followers to understand what good (and bad) leadership means. The “great man/woman” concept that many of us grew up with needs to evolve to “great people.” We the people need to understand what it means to lead. We need to understand the complex nature of leadership, the many types, styles, traits and stop choosing leaders because of some arbitrary judgement we make that comes down to how we feel that day. We need to apply those same principles of good/great leadership to ourselves.
In recent years, we have fallen into relying on the hopes of some charismatic leader/hero to bring us through. This was not how our system was designed, and if you look at many of these types of leaders, they too counted on the leadership and heroism of the people they led. Leadership is a responsibility we share with those we elect to lead, and if we expect our leaders to lead by example, then let us be an example for our leaders.
Is this asking too much of a democratic citizenry? No, and I believe it was the expectation of the founding fathers and mothers that this is how it would work. They knew we would need the highest quality individuals to lead us, and they counted on “we the people” to assure that this would happen.
So, let’s not place the fault solely on the leaders that WE have elected or chosen. Let’s also hold ourselves accountable for establishing the criteria, then making the choice, and maintaining the highest standard. Let we the people become the leaders we were all meant to be.
I am certain that our leaders will follow.