The Elusive Truths of Leadership
Are you sure you want to lead?
Leadership is an elusive concept. Nearly everyone is certain that he or she would like the mantle of leadership — whether at home, at work, in competitive events, or all three — but we rarely think through the implications.
One of the first questions any aspiring leader must ask is: Who do I seek to lead and why?
Becoming a leader, while it offers evident rewards, also means becoming involved in the lives of those whose work and efforts fall under your purview. A retired army captain once told me, “You try taking one hundred people and getting them to move across the country — with all their gear, with all their personal problems and issues.” He was positing doing this in conditions of normalcy not under warfare or crisis. Think back to the last time you had to organize a far smaller group of people for a shorter trip and you will immediately see the implications of his statement.
A leader has little privacy. When you are the person in charge, people constantly approach you with their problems and questions. Not infrequently, their questions are not really questions in the sense of probing and solving a dilemma but rather seeking a one-time fix to a repeat or root issue; they will likely approach you with the same problem tomorrow.
