Assumptions about Leadership


Leadership is about providing a strong situational responseto changing realities and is therefore essentially an improvisational art. Theneed for leadership springs from the one constant reality that the world aroundus changes all the time. Changing times and circumstances require differentresponses to the realities. Leadership is about envisioning the changes in thesociety and the environment around us. It is about creating value through therealization of this vision. People with a clarified and cultivated vision ofthe future can affect change - detecting and understanding the need for changebefore it becomes commonplace reality.


Change requires refashioning behavior and prevalentattitudes and invariably evokes significant resistance from society in general.Leadership, therefore, is about confronting this resistance to change andfacilitating the acceptance of new possibilities. At its core, leadership isthe sacred pursuit of a learned vision to affect change in a world full ofchallenges. And because accepting challenges and confronting them requires arealistic assessment of success and ones ability to influence change, leadersare those who constantly reevaluate their capabilities to affect change andaccept the possibility of failure and sacrifice. True leaders therefore arecommitted to affecting change to realize their vision of reality and arewilling to accept failure. Leaders do this because the reality they seek isfocused on the greater good of society and because of their abiding commitmentto improving the quality of life around them. They are influenced by the notionof possibility thinking rather than probability thinking. Leaders have a strongdesire to realize the proposed changes and they demonstrate a level ofcommitment that goes beyond a typical assessment of the probability of success.Leaders accept a higher level of risk and the dangers associated with failure.


Leadership by its very nature is a societal pursuit. Itessentially has two dimensions personal and public leadership. Personalleadership stems from ones desire to measure up to and prepare for thechallenges of the envisioned changes. Public leadership is a response toaffecting those changes by engaging the society in a deliberate process oftransitioning from the existing to new realities.



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About the Author:


TheAuthor is working in the capacity of a Lecturer, Facilitator andStudent Counsellor at different places and is PG and MS in Psychotherapy andCounselling