Article published in Perfil on December, 23rd, 2020.
Leadership is a fundamental tool for the progress of society. A society without leaders gets destroyed.
There are two books in the Bible, Kings and Judges, which are the “Leaders” books. These books are a manual of the problems and challenges that a leader must face in his work with society and with the people.
These texts are used to learn about how to choose a leader and how to interact with him. It is a complete treatise on the concept of leadership in which it is revealed that leaders can redeem or destroy a society. These books include, among other chronicles, the experiences of famous ancient Hebrew leaders such as Judges Joshua and Samson, and Kings Saul, David, and Solomon.
Fortunately, today, most leaders are elected by the people and they are under greater supervision and control than in ancient times. That is an extremely positive factor, but it depends on the people knowing how to vote wisely to choose an optimal leader and not get carried away by slogans that are just empty words that hide lies and manipulation.
But how do we know who has authentic leadership skills? How can we tell if the leader will be able to guide us on the right path? How do we know if he is honest or if he is deceiving us because of his lust for power, fame or wealth?
The new normal and leadership
As we have said, leaders are necessary, but they have to meet certain conditions so that they are positive and contribute to the construction of a better society. Some of the following are the keys to good leadership:
Service vocation. Being a positive leader for society is not possible if it doesn’t start from a vocation spirit of love for people, not from seeking honor or personal satisfaction, but from a vocation of service to others, from giving oneself. Service vocation is the basis of positive leadership.
Humility. One of the conditions for being a successful and beneficial leader is humility: it is the main virtue. Humility ensures that the leader does not become a dictator, a hoarder, a person who, instead of offering himself to society, uses society for his own benefit.
It is what Moses had, the most humble man on earth. The greatness of a person is going to be measured by the humility and modesty he has. He who lacks humility does not rule for others, he rules for his ego and his benefit.
At the same time, there is the danger of drunkenness from the position. The position can make people dizzy. The antidote to that is humility, which has to be maintained after being named a leader. The Bible tells the story of Saul, the first king of Israel. When God sends the prophet to anoint him, he hides; he did not want to be king, he wanted to be humble, he did not want a hierarchical position. But when years later, he sent the same prophet to warn him that he was not going to continue being king, but a minister, and David was going to be king of Israel, pride seizes him and he becomes angry to such an extent that he wanted to kill David. So he sent people to kill David’s helpers. There is nothing worse for a country than a superb leader who loses proportion and perception of reality.
Action. The leader is active, he works hard, goes from one place to another and tries to constantly improve things. He is not the one who says, expresses and leaves his ideas latent for someone to execute them; he is the one who activates and puts his ideas into practice.
Be careful with crisis situations. The candidates to be leaders – the rulers especially – usually have a speech that makes their potential voters calm down in crisis situations. They study the problems of society and tell them that they will get them out of the crisis.
The election of the leader should not be based only on the crisis situation that prevails in a society, the candidate should be analyzed; focusing on qualities such as nobility and management skills.
Perseverance. The leader must know that the results are like putting a drill in the wall. When you drill a 12-inch thick wall, you don’t see light at 6 or 8 inches, you have to keep drilling to get to the end. Also in life there are situations in which the light comes after a certain time and effort; sometimes you don’t see the light until you reach the target. Therefore, the leader must have the patience to endure a failure, a mistake, whether it comes from him or is due to external circumstances. The leader who only knows how to lead when things are going well is not a true leader.
The strength of being a vulnerable leader
Motivation. When Moses asks God to appoint a successor to lead the people, he asks him to choosea person who has “spirit.” The spirit is something that cannot be touched, cannot be seen, cannot be felt; It is the energy, the enthusiasm. The leader’s mission is not to intimidate or preach who he should serve. It is giving them courage to live. He has to strengthen the spirit so that people can overcome the storms of life and develop their life projects.
Know and respect the differences. Leadership is exercised optimally when the heterogeneity that exists among people, the difference in criteria and the different personalities are taken into account. A leader must respect the personality of each person, of each man and each woman. From this we learn that a leader cannot adopt identical measures for everyone, but must recognize the differences of each person and give answers to each situation.
Leadership after Covid-19
The danger of bureaucracy. Choosing someone who is unknown is the danger of great systems: In Genesis the Bible relates that when humanity tried to face the tower of Babel to unify all humanity, God did not allow it. It was apparently a noble proposition, but why did God frustrate the project of a universal society with only one idea and one language? Exegetes explain that when a society is too large, the system of election of its leaders becomes unreal and generates conflicts. When something is very big it is better to divide it up because the complex bureaucracy does not allow to truly choose its leaders; they do choose, but they don’t know what they choose; it’s as if they are not choosing. In the end, the ones who are positioned in leadership are those who belong to those areas and not the ones that society needs. The biblical idea is that democracy is actually exercised when people choose who they truly know. They should vote people they know for their virtues and these should vote for another until a true leader is appointed for all, chosen by the people and not by a marketing campaign.
Conclusion. The solution to social problems mostly lies in the correct system of how we elect leaders in all areas. We have already progressed as a society and democracy is established in a big part of the world, now we can make democracy a tool to benefit the people and not a tool used by those who seek power.
Source: www.perfil.com
