Let me tell you what leadership- true leadership really means.
There are six tenets to great, long-lasting leadership. All of them are equally quintessential; failure in any one area will result in a failed leadership: tyranny, genocide, or just plain inefficiency.
One, Love. A true leader must love his people, love his society and, most importantly, love his purpose. He must believe and have faith in what he works for: a greater future, and then love his people enough to sacrifice himself for them to reach this greater future, even if without him. He must not be selfish or have any personal agenda or greed, or lust. His priority is his people, his society. 1984's Big Brother is a failure in this area; as some of you may know, the Party, for the purpose of power and a rigid hierarchy, intellectually handicaps the populace (proles, as they are). Everyone is worse off. The leadership has failed.
Two, Rationality. A true leader must always be thinking, competent. He must know what, how, and most importantly, why. He must be able to relate to his people, share their joys, and understand their suffering. This is what everyone says leadership really is; they are not entirely wrong. Failure in this area would result in the breakdown of the most basal of leader-follower bonds: trust. To this end, a leader can only be allowed to keep power while competent. ...I'm sure you can think of many such incompetent leaders that deserve your ire; history is full of them.
Three, Resilience. A true leader needs to be flexible and adaptable; this trait will no doubt help him on his rise to power, but he needs to keep it in order to stay there. As times and circumstances change, so must his leadership, lest he be caught unable to deal with constantly evolving and emerging conundrums and threats. In application, the leader must not doggedly and blindly remain on the same goal even when the world around him has changed. Everything must be renewed from time to time. Hitler should never have maintained his aggression so far into his leadership; it was useful for stirring discontented populace and overthrowing the Weimar Republic, but did not provide the best kind of momentum when it came to the international stage. Like their troops on the Russian front, Nazi Germany's death to exposure owed to their inflexibility.
Four, Independence. A true leader thinks for himself and is not a lackey of his ministers or his people. He does not make his decisions solely to appease all of his ministers, or let his rule be governed by the mob; he is accountable, but not slaved. He governs, and is not governed. Given the greatest access to information as well as being the highest authority, he must be able to make the correct decisions for his people. The current leadership in the U.S.A. stands testament to such a failure; the president is helpless in the face of filibustering and meaningless contradiction, and spends billions of dollars boot-licking the people, half of whom are, perhaps one can say... less aware of the overall global picture. A society governed by its people is subject to their whims and transient tendencies; until people become rational and educated enough to at least minimise the worse repercussions of aforementioned impulses, it would be unwise to hand the rule of a society wholly to its people.
Five, Responsibility. A true leader is responsible and accountable for his ways, thinking and decisions. He must be able to answer to the people for his actions, especially in times of crises. He must not be inclined to push the blame to an unconcerned scapegoat simply to stay in power. This is a follow-up of the previous characteristic; his decisions are his own, based on his own judgements and analyses, and they must be accredited to, or blamed on, him alone. Multinational corporations practise the choosing of a scapegoat in times of crises, forcing them to resign to appease the public; this is irresponsible and ultimately inimical to the overall societal makeup should it be implemented in global governing; incompetence stays within the structure like a bad rot. Osama's leadership of al-Qaeda also lacks this responsibility. Sure, he claimed "responsibility" for the 9-11 attacks, but selfishly endangering everyone of similar cultural background, sowing discord between two very broad ethnic groups and then slinking away is hardly what can be called mature and responsible. In his opinion, he was only accountable to his beliefs; his people were secondary, their welfares expendable.
Six, Permanence. A true leader is, to a certain extent, permanent in the eyes of his people. He remains even after he is gone, as the representative of an idea or a purpose, as a role model, as a venerated figure worthy of respect. A true leader has to do more than lead; he must enter the hearts and minds of his people, as it is only there that his reign will persevere. As much as he knows his people, his people must know him. Crucially, when good leaders represent a pre-existing idea (such as when Constantine led the early Christians), they validate the idea and doubly invigorate their followers. This is particularly advisable as the ruler can tap the pre-existing reputation gained by those before him, and thereafter hitch onto the permanence of the idea, perhaps even becoming synonymous with it. In his belief, his decorum, his honour and his compassion, he must remain unchanged throughout his reign. He must remain incorruptible, untarnished; only then will he attain the positive kind of permanence, and only then will he remain eternal.
By now, you may think you have noticed the seemingly unforgivable hypocrisy littered thickly around my claims. What, then, if I tell you that many a leadership has failed precisely due to its inability to recognise the beautifully contradictory synthesis that is necessary for great rule?
They have always come close, but never close enough.
A leader must Love despite Independence. One must understand that independence is not the complete abandonment of consideration for the ruler's subjects in decision-making. Society's welfare should supersede society's approval; a leader should be able to take independent action that is unpopular with the public (thus seemingly not prioritising society) only when it is internally perceived to provide greater benefit the public only in subtler ways, or if there is an equal or greater benefit in the long term. The leader should be allowed to ration food to keep surpluses if he projects tough times ahead. This is tough, parental love but still, nonetheless, Love.
A leader must be Rational and then Responsible. The contradiction arises when the best and most rational decision for the society holds the leader negatively accountable in the people's perspectives. In this essence, one can say that the leader must be rational in all aspects other than when he considers his responsibility. Fear of responsibility should be factored out of decision-making to ensure that the best ones are made, but responsibility must be taken anyway. This exclusion is, ironically, the leader's personal responsibility.
A leader must attain Permanence through Resilience. Some may think that it is impossible for the people to truly know a leader who is constantly changing and thinking unpredictably. Well, if the rule of a society is a classical melody, each leader is a single note, their flexibilities vibratos; does not one recognise the note regardless of vibrato? And is not the vibrato necessary for the beauty of the melody to express itself? A true leader can maintain a long-lasting image even while being creative. Perhaps, even, it is necessary for the leader to be resilient when interacting with the people for him to earn their hearts and minds.
A true leader must first be competent, and he must love his purpose and people. He must, by nature, be resilient and flexible in the face of adversary. When making decisions, he must be authoritative enough to make hard decisions in the interest of his society, and be fully accountable for his decisions. Through this, he will remain eternally in the hearts and minds of his subjects.
For Yourself and your People,
you must Be how you Think,
for you are Eternal Change.
Independence, but Love.
Responsibility, with Rationality.
Permanence, through Resilience.
Adam
