Spirit of Leadership

INTRODUCTION moral and ethical experimentation, religious conflicts, and cultural clashes. These conditions demand the highest qual ity of leadership that our generation can produce. Yet I have sat in the halls of governments and observed the struggles of today’s leaders. I have sat around the table chatting with presidents of countries, and I have heard them express their lack of ability to deal with their nations’ challenges. I have talked with cabinet ministers of governments around the world, and they openly ask for help, assistance, and advice. Many leaders just don’t know how to lead any longer. This crisis in leadership is on many people’s minds today. Questions of moral integrity, honor, values, role models, and respectable standards are topics of discussion on many news programs, and they are also in the thoughts of the man on the street. We hear of leaders having sexual escapades. We hear of business magnates falling by the dozens to cor ruption. We see national leaders and their cabinet members being tried by their own governments for stealing and other financial misconduct. We learn of priests abusing and mis using their authority and positions in order to take advan tage of those whom they were entrusted to care for. Where are the true leaders today? I believe the problem is that leadership has become a role one plays rather than a life one leads. Contemporary leaders are attempting to divorce their personal lives from their public responsibilities and their personal standards from their public lives. To many, leadership is an act, not a T HERE IS NOTHING AS ELUSIVE AS LEADERSHIP .

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