What makes a good leader?

Leadership, Teamwork and Service:  Three words that are often associated to leaders.  Three words that could either burden an institution or build a nation.

According to Max DePree, author of famous books about leadership,  “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.”

Leaders must accept and embrace their role not to be burdened by the responsibility of the position handed to them but to be a source of inspiration and guide to their fellowmen.

Yes, it is true that being a leader is not an easy thing to do.  But what makes it difficult is not the fact that the task is agonizingly difficult, but because the acceptance of role is not present.  They said that leaders do not inflict pain, leaders bear the pain.  Enticing as it may seem, being a leader of this school, the position that you hold now entails grave responsibilities which only brave souls like you would dare tackle head on.  But bearing all these challenges will prepare you not only to be good leaders now and onwards but also prepare you to nurture future leaders.

While many of the students say lots of reverberating No, I can’t, I don’t want to or why do I have to?  A single YES of a leader like you will inspire more yeses.  Isn’t it wonderful when the entire student body replies with a purposeful YES because their leader shows them that even an ORDINARY person like them can make things happen? 

Leadership is not about distinction, social class or power.  According to the Evangelist Luke, a leader is the one who serves (Lk. 22:24-30).  Leadership is a concept of owing certain things to the institution. It is a way of thinking about institutional heirs, a way of thinking about stewardship as contrasted with ownership.  The art of leadership requires us to think about the leader-as-steward of his institution or community and not as the owner of his society.

Leaders should leave behind them assets and a legacy. They must deliver to their organizations the appropriate services, products, tools, and equipment that people in the organization need in order to be accountable.  As a prefect you are the artful leaders of this school.

What are artful leaders responsible for? Surely you need to include people. People are the heart and spirit of all that counts. Without people, there is no need for leaders. Leaders can decide to be primarily concerned with leaving assets to their institutional heirs or they can go beyond that and capitalize on the opportunity to leave a legacy, a legacy that takes into account the more difficult, qualitative side of life, one which provides greater meaning, more challenge, and more joy in the lives of those whom leaders enable.

In a day when so much energy seems to be spent on maintenance and manuals, on bureaucracy and meaningless quantification, to be a leader is to enjoy the special privileges of complexity, of ambiguity, of diversity. But to be a leader means, especially, having the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who permit leaders to lead. 

Prefects and Student Council officers of Bina Bangsa School:  BE proud for you are called to serve, to lead and to connect each other in a bond that would one day be part of the human legacy.