What is true leadership

A leader is one who grows not at the expense of others, but take others long. A true leader is perfectly unconcerned about himself/herself, and is concerned about the welfare of his people. A true leader loves his/her people and does not differentiate or discriminate. A true leader is painstakingly righteous and would never allow personal compulsions cloud his/her sense of justice. A true leader will always do whatever it takes for the real long term benefit of his/her people and would never give in to short term temptations like popularity. For their long term benefit he/she would not even hesitate to take hard and unpopular decisions. He is, in the language of Sri Ramakrishna, a good physician. An inferior physician will merely prescribe medicines. A medium one will only request the patient to take medicines. A good one not merely requests, but will apply force if necessary, because he/she knows that it is in the best interest of the patient. A true leader does not enjoy power. He/she knows that the most important form of power is to be able to serve people wholeheartedly and sincerely, without any selfish motives. A true leader serves, does not help. He/she like a great teacher removes obstacles from the path of growth just as the farmer opens the sluice gate for the canal water to flow into the field. The water inundates the field and helps in growing crops. Similarly once the obstacles are removed individuals can grow themselves out of their own potential. A true leader knows that he/she is not the doer, a mere instrument, that he/she has no ownership on his/her people, but just a trustee managing their affairs. A true leader demonstrates by becoming example. His/her life itself is a burning and shining example of what his people should do and how. A true leader carries people along - in the language of Sri Ramakrishna he/she is like a large steamship which carries a lot of people, and not merely a wooden log which can only carry itself on the water. An organization where there is a true leader becomes a growth engine for all its people, while an organization where there is no true leadership is a vehicle of growth only for a few privileged one, while majority languishes.

A leader will never have to proclaim himself or herself or will be known automatically and people would flock around him/her for guidance just as bees swarm around a full blown lotus.

A true leader is perfectly detached. Detachment does not mean not concerned with the affairs, but on the contrary, concerned with the affairs only to the extent where it benefits others. Beyond that he/she is unconcerned. To take an example, if a true leader undertakes a project and if he/she knows that the project would only confer limited benefits to the people, even though it is a strategic one and even though it is conceived by him/her an probably he/she is having a lot at stake personally, he/she would still scrap the project. Same goes with people. If people, however indispensable they are, become a nuisance for others, a true leader will not hesitate to get rid of them, however loyal or close those person(s) may be to him/her.

A true leader always acts out of compassion, not compulsion. Every action is driven by a desire for the welfare of many and is never driven by selfish motives of name, fame, power and fortune.

A true leader is a living example of his/her ideal. He/she would never say one thing and do another, would never indulge in hypocrisy and dishonesty, would take care of his flock like a good shepherd. A true leader would neither be task driven, nor people driven, but ideal driven. The ideal is never selfish but selfless, for the betterment of others.

A true leader would be able to get along with everybody. He/she would be able to deal with the good and wicked with equal compassion. He/she transcends good and bad. He/she would never try to find faults with others but would always see their positive contributions and potential, rather than giving them sermons to improve. A true leader knows that a man is born perfect and is moving towards perfection, but that he knows not and behaves in an imperfect manner out of ignorance. He/she would not manage a conflict situation but rather would facilitate the conflict to happen and intervene only if it goes out of control, because he knows that a conflict is necessary to reveal the strength of character. Only when an iron hammer strikes the anvil we know the immense strength of the anvil to resist that blow. 

A true leader would not possess disdain for anything and would even perform small and minor tasks with the same care and attention as he/she would have performed a major project. To him/her every work is worship.

Now the question is, are there such leaders? If we look into organizations or nations, there are none. Some may fulfill some of the above conditions and become great. If we look into history we hardly find any leader who fulfilled above all. However in the last century, we do find a so called uneducated village woman who fulfilled all of the above and more. She was probably one of the greatest of all leaders in the history of mankind, and yet, the world knows little about her.