what makes a good leader???

Today I was talking with a friend about how likely could we apply the fantastic theories of leadership into practices? Power and money are always the boundary. People always fight for more money, but few would ever think about money does not means better life and happiness. How much money does a person need? A bed, some foods, some clothes. When he died how much could he take away? If he prepared to leave the money to his children, he would made the case even worth.

So what makes a good leader? As the Bible emphasised, love yourself is love your neighbour (the people surround you). To be a good leader or even just to be a good person is about how much you could contribute to the world surrounding you. There was an old philosophy about how to be a good person. The story was a guy asks a friend how he can be a good person? His friend told him “imagine when you died how would you like your funeral? Think about the people was around you, will they be there? what would they think and talk about you? Then you would know how to be a good person.”
I think this philosophy is also applied to how to be a good leader. Certainly power and money are not the most meaningful things in our life. Every leader should “self-assess”, when you leave the position what would all the stakeholders in the company think about you? Will they celebrate because the hard life is over or will they always remember you because you made their life better?
I think social responsibility is always the pre-request for someone who wants to be a good leader. An excellent leader should always think in long terms, the term that longer than they could possibly lead.

: 01 Dec 2006 00:22 |  Tags: Eee |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem