Leadership
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he election 2014 in India is nearing completion and we are eagerly awaiting the result that will be declared on 16th May 2014 to elect the new Prime Minister of India. The world is watching who would be the next leader for India to lead the people. Leadership is what we need today. The world will be like sheep without a shepherd if there were no leaders. Leadership is a quality common to all social animals. When we look around the world in which we live, we observe that the pride of lions is led by one dominant male, a herd of elephant has a leader, migratory birds show social behaviour and are led by a dominant individual while the rest follow the leader. Likewise all human societies, groups and communities have their respective leaders from time immemorial. Every congregation of human beings; be it at the micro level of religious or other groups and communities, or at the macro level of societies and nations, is bound to be headed by someone who stands out above the others and acts as a guide or a leader.Leadership is a topic with universal appeal, in the popular press, academic research literature and much has been written about leadership. Despite the abundance of writing on the topic, leadership has presented a major challenge to practitioners and researchers interested in understanding the nature of leadership. It is a highly valued phenomenon that is very complex. Through the years, leadership has been defined and conceptualized in many ways. The component common to nearly all classifications is that leadership is an influence process that assist group of individual toward goal attainment, it is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individual to achieve a common goal.
The common forms of leadership are assigned emergent. Assigned leadership is based on a formal title or position in an organisation. Emergent leadership result from what one does and how one acquires support from followers. Leadership as a process applies to individual in both assigned roles and emergent roles. Here we have to understand the nature of leadership that we have today in our communities and society.
Leadership is an important factor for making any type of organisation successful. Throughout the history it has been recognised that the difference between success and failure, whether in a war or a political movement, a business or a team game, can be attributed largely to leadership. It is essential for the proper functioning of any society that work be clearly defined and assigned to different individual and would be required to supervise activities in each specialised area of work. These individuals in turn may be superseded by another individual who would co-ordinate and supervise their work. A leader is essential for smooth and proper functioning of any society, animals or human, primitive or highly evolved.
“He who would be the greatest among shall be the servant of all,” said Jesus our greatest leader and master. Similarly the maxim goes,” A true leader is a true servant.” A leader is supposed to serve his people. He/ She should be committed, honest and fully give himself / herself to work for the welfare of the people. A leader must be socially aware and conscious and have qualities of a magnetic personality, highly developed communication skills, courage, physical fitness, pragmatism, tolerance and care for others.
One major attraction of leadership is the immense power, the recognition and the position it incorporates. It is unfortunate that many people get motivated solely by their greed for power and aspire to become and often become so as a leader. They cause damage to the social fabric through their selfish motives and preoccupation that hampers of the development of the society. Nepotism, favouritism and employment opportunities in public and private sectors are clear cut example of misuse of power. The multi faceted corruption we are facing today and lack of progress and development in our society are the outcome of greedy and wrong leaders. So, it is necessary to be wise enough to carefully elect or select good and capable leaders to lead us.
Leadership is universal and a necessity of every society for human development. Without leaders no society or nation can progress. And without a capable leader a society generally tends to degenerate, fall victim to decadence and finally degenerate. Good leaders are immensely popular, enjoy massive support and often leave an indelible impression on a nation’s character besides providing standards of excellence and dedication. The elections are over and the leaders to lead our nation need rethinking and regenerate the resources for the development of our society. A leader is one who makes sure that all his people receive fair share due to them. Hope this will happen this time, a right leader for our society today.
David Tep
St. Joseph’s College
Jakhama – Nagaland
