Leaders, simply put, are people who lead, not divide. Today, we have public figures/officials occupying positions of leadership who are dividers, not leaders. Face it, it is easier to divide and conquer: to pit group against group for personal power and aggrandizement. Far more difficult is the path which seeks to unite the diverse into a common whole: e pluribus unum, from the many, one. Yet, this is the way of true leadership.
True leaders require the imaginative reasoning skills to use the ethical principles as both a tempering agent and catalyst: a tempering agent which melds and forges constructive differences into an alloy far stronger than any single element and as a catalyst to remove divisive impurities of self-interest, sectarianism, bigotry and hatred which weaken the common bonds of community. (Cassel, 1996b)
“There is nothing special to leadership--essentially it is a matter of controlling the evils of biased information and autocracy. Do not just go by whatever is said to you first--then the obsequities of petty people seeking favor will not be able to confuse you. After all, the feelings of a group of people are not one, and objective reason is hard to see. You should investigate something to see its benefit or harm, examine whether it is appropriate and suitable or not; then after that you may carry it out.” Zen Master Caotang Song Dynasty (Cleary, 1993)
True leaders require the personal integrity, the courage of their conviction in the rightness of the ethical principles, to publicly use them in constructive discussion and in turn be publicly judged by them. True leadership is accomplished by example, not by exception. A true leader is both a teacher and an exemplar of his convictions. The teaching role of leadership in our society appears to have been forgotten.......
