Spirit of Leadership

LEADING WITHOUT LEADERSHIP the leadership spirit has led to a loss of true leadership in the world. THE IMPACT OF THE DISCONNECTION Let’s look more closely at our dilemma through two related illustrations. First, water is potentially a source of power. When it is harnessed, it can be used to run machinery, such as in a water mill. For this to happen, however, (1) you have to have access to the water, and (2) you have to have the machinery in place. If you are unable to harness the water or you don’t have the proper machinery set up, then the mill can’t fulfill its pur pose. It’s the same with the spirit of leadership. The loss of the spirit of leadership is also like buying a new computer that has all the hardware to enable you to run programs and carry out their functions but then not having any power source to run the computer. Suppose, then, that you discover a power source and plug it in. The computer is powered on and ready to go, but you still need software for it to be of practical use to you. You have the knowledge of what the computer has been designed to do, and all the components of the hardware are ready for use. The potential is there, the abil ity is there, everything the manufacturer put into it is there, but it’s almost as if you don’t own a computer because you can’t do anything with it. These two examples illustrate the two-pronged nature of our problem. First, even though our potential as leaders is still within us, we’ve lost our connection with our Source of T HE LEADERSHIP SPIRIT EXISTS DEEP DOWN INSIDE THE MAKEUP OF EVERY PERSON .

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