Leadership is a collective responsibility

One thing about leadership is that sometimes, we don't actually understand what it involves till we are in a position to lead. Sometimes, we feel leaders are overpaid, or treated too specially than the people they lead. Sometimes, we blame, curse and attribute all failures to them. But if one takes a careful look at it, and when one is in a position to lead, one understands better.

The amazing thing about leaders is that they take less care of themselves and more care of the organization they lead. They practically live their lives for the organization they are in charge of. As any success of the organization is attributed to the leader (who in turn attributes it to the efforts of each member of his Team or Organization), so also are the failures blamed on the same leaders. Look at a football club for example. When a team performs badly in a current season after a great performance the previous season, the Head Coach of the team is blamed. In a lot of cases, it results to the sack of the coach. I haven't come across a situation where the players were sacked, even when the failures may actually arise from the players. Few persons or nobody wants to hear I did my best, but my players, my employees, my staffs disappointed me. That's the life of a leader!

Sometimes, we have wished to be the President of the country, or the Governor of a state, or the CEO of an Organization. Sometimes, we say: "If I was the President, If I was in his position; I would have done things better." But how sure are we? Or how much do we understand the responsibility we would carry? How effective are we leading that little organization we are in charge of at present?

Do you recognize that almost Everyone, in fact Everyone, is a Leader? You may be in charge of a small group of people, maybe a class in your school, a unit in your religious organization, a group in your community, place of work, or lodge where you reside. No matter how small the team is, it doesn't hide the truth that you're a leader. And Big leaders are not born, they are made. Even born leaders have to learn, get some discipline and personal training, for them to be successful. It's just like a highly skilled footballer who still exercises and trains constantly, knowing that if he doesn't, his skills will be wasting away.

So, in that little you do, in the small you lead, do your best and give your best. You shouldn't blame the Big leader at the top when you, a subordinate leader, takes your own part of the responsibility with less zeal and interest. Take that little as yours. You know that a big organization can never make progress when the sub units are failing. You also know that you will fail as a big leader, when you don't value that little leadership you own at the present.

As a Big leader, who is enthusiastic about his responsibility, one knows that he will take most if not all the blames for the failures. So, one has the responsibility to choose the right subordinate leaders that will share and work for similar goals and objectives, and who are committed as well. It's just like the Head Coach of a football team signing the right players he needs for the philosophy of football he believes in. He can't be signing excess of defenders when he has little or no supporting attacking players and when he knows that he won't make use of a number of the defenders he signs. Except the club is rich enough to afford acquiring lot of players. But even at that, good players won't come just to warm the bench, and even the owner(s) of the club will see it as bad managerial skills on the side of the head coach, and won't want to be decreasing their profits no matter how much they still make at the end of the day. So as a leader of a big team, have the right team members, and place efficiency and service above personal gains and profits.