Two To Remember
Two To Remember “Just as the diamond requires three properties for its formation—carbon, heat, and pressure—successful leaders require the interaction of three properties—character, knowledge, and application. Like carbon to the diamond, character is the basic quality of the leader. But as carbon alone does not create a diamond, neither can character alone create a leader. The diamond needs heat. Man needs knowledge, study, and preparation. The third property, pressure—acting in conjunction with carbon and heat—forms the diamond. Similarly, one’s character, attended by knowledge, blooms through application to produce a leader.” General Edward C. Meyer Former Army Chief of Staff Great leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish a goal. Influencing means getting people to do what they would not normally do on their own. But there’s more to influencing than simply passing along directions. Great leaders have vision, communication skills, integrity, motivation, as well as a sense of loyalty, respect and personal courage. In using these traits great leaders can change history just as Toussaint L’Ouverture and Kwame Nkrumah did. Having a vision is the starting point for a great leader. Being able to formulate an idea into a mission than sharing the vision and mission with others is invaluable. But at the end of the day it is the movement's leader who has to be the chief steward of the vision. It is the leader who has to be obsessed with the desired outcome. Nkrumah had a vision that the large costal towns, Ashanti, Trans-Volta Togoland and the remote regions of the Northern Territories should be a part of the self-government movement. This vision was so important to him that he hitchhiked and walked all around the Gold Coast to share his vision with the people. Not every leader must create a new vision. Some leaders become great because they will take a vision or idea that is in its infancy and mold it or point it into a better direction. Some movements or revolutions are started off with just a few people who have a vision but lack the skill to organize or knowledge in how to accomplish their goal. Once a vision has been shared then it is the leader's prime and fundamental responsibility to assure that the full resources of the movement are effectively brought to bear to achieve that destination. L’Ouverture, when he embraced the vision of freedom for the slaves of San Domingo, was able to bring his political vices and integrity to the political leaders that created the vision of freedom. Believing in the vision, regardless of how passionately is not enough. A leader must be able to communicate the vision frequently and effectively. They need to be capable of articulating it in different ways to different constituencies.