True Leadership

There are so many books that teach leadership techniques to fatten your bank balance, to climb up the corporate ladder, to have more power, to control people’s lives and to inflate your ego accordingly. But what about a type of leadership by which we can make a very serious, significant contribution to people’s lives and to the world in general? True leadership means to be a leader who actually has a positive effect in people’s lives—not simply leading in such a way in order to make a lot of money. What really matters is the mark that one leaves on the world. If one does not have proper integrity, the world hates him. People despise hypocrisy.

When you become a leader, people open their hearts to trust you. They give their faith. In that place you can offer the greatest benefit to those people’s lives—but you could also cause the greatest pain, anguish and devastation. So leadership is not a post to enjoy. If that is your idea, then you will be a very exploitative person and a very miserable leader. Leadership is a very serious, significant responsibility of service to others. A real leader is in a spirit of service. And, in order to be a proper leader in that way, one must have knowledge of what is actually right and what is actually wrong.

Knowledge is power. The great thing is not having power; the great thing is how you use your power. Are you using the power in such a way so that you gain genuine inner fulfillment and enlightenment, and you improve the physical, emotional and ethical quality of others? If you are just going through your life thinking about job, money and prestige, then will there be any depth to your life? Will there ever be fulfillment in your life? Are you just selling your consciousness out to the world of materialism, greed, envy and pride? Is your life superficial, or is it meaningful and real? These are the most important questions you should be asking. A good leader is a person who attracts people’s confidence and enthuses people to loyalty and faithfulness because of their relationship, whether the relationship is immediate or extended. —Radhanath Swami