Where You Lead, I Will Follow

Well, I'm back in the office-although hardly anyone is here, so I had time to think about leadership again, especially given some of the things going on in the world. I have been watching a course from Harvard called "The Psychology of Leadership"--see previous posts, and today the lesson was about leadership--and how do we train leaders. In looking around on the web, I found these interesting statements:
To Change the World, Change Yourself First
Inscribed on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop at Westminster Abbey
When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits,
I dreamed of changing the world.
As I grew older and wiser I discovered the world would not change
So I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change my country
But it too seemed unmoveable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt,
I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me.
But alas they would have none of it!
And now I realize, as I lie on my deathbed, that is I had only changed myself first,
Then by example I might have changed my family.
From then, by example, I might have changed my friends.
From their aspirations and encouragement I would have been able t better my country
And who know. . . I might have even changed the world.

This was very apropos after a conversation I had with my daughter about men. Some women attach themselves to men that they think they can change--make better (it's for their own good, isn't it), and for the most part they find that it doesn't happen. I should know, I had one like that--that I was going to save, and fix all of the problems he had. Twenty-three years later I finally got it. It wasn't going to happen.

I also found this very interesting commentary that seems to fit in with the conversation:

Rules for being human
You will receive a body. You may like it or not but it will be yours the whole time.
You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn. You may like the lessons or you may hate the lessons but you will have little choice anyway.

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The 'failed' experiment is as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately works.

A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, then you can go to the next lesson.

Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

There is no better there than here. When your there becomes here you will simply obtain another there that will again look better than here.

Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate in yourself.

What you make of your life is up to you. You have the tools and resources that you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

Your answers lie inside of you. The answers to life's questions lie inside of you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust.
Y
ou will forget all this

The statement that caught my eye was the one marked above--which kind of follows the post on reflections.(see previous post).

So, what makes a leader--according to Harvard, two necessary things are competence and character. So, can we train people to have character? Is it a skill or an innate part of the person. And, if it is innate--how did it get there--through parental/teacher models?

I know this is blasphemous, (I don't think any of my bosses read this), but where I work, leaders are determined by who you know, what ladders you climbed to get ahead--not competence and character. Sometimes it seems like if you mess up bad enough (and you are in the network--you get bumped up the ladder higher). Certainly the people who end up in leadership positions for the most part never received training for it--so I guess my work thinks that leadership is innate (at least that's my logic). I'm not jealous or anything because I have been put in leadership roles several times--not because I wanted to climb the ladder, but I was willing to do the work. I figure if I lead, I don't have to follow.

So, I would like to put this out to my loyal (reader(s))--is leadership a skill or innate?

Still hot and humid in Atlanta

Nancy