Spirit of Leadership

THE SPIRIT OF LEADERSHIP For example, when a person doesn’t have a good self-concept, a strong self-worth, and high self-esteem, he will use his power in negative ways in order to compensate for his feelings of infe riority and vulnerability. He will intimidate, manipulate, and oppress. E VERYONE DESIRES INFLUENCE ; HOWEVER , WE ’ VE CONFUSED INFLUENCE WITH DOMINANCE . When you realize this truth, it helps you to understand why many people act the way they do. This is the reason tyrants tyrannize. Have you ever noticed that when some people come into positions of power, their personalities seem to change for the worse? They are tasting the nature of leadership, but they don’t have the character to manage it—or themselves—well. This is the source of many of the problems we are seeing in the contemporary business world, as well as in national politics. We all naturally seek power. The homeless man sleeping under a bridge in a cardboard box desires power just as much as the man who is sleeping in a twelve-bedroom house by a lake. We use a thousand different ways to try to gain power, such as— • positions of influence • money • association and membership in influential or elite groups • material status symbols, such as clothing, houses, cars, and jets • status in society, such as living in a certain neigh borhood or region

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