MY LEADERSHIP
JOURNEY – Transforming Lives
By
Emmanuel E.
Gonsalves
eegon57@gmail.com
What comes to mind when we hear the word
leadership? One tends to think of international or national figures. Somehow
our brains immediately translate leadership to mean leader. We automatically
think about John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Franklyn Roosevelt, Martin
Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and Barack
Obama, to name but a few. We tend not to include among this group of leaders the
people around us and or ourselves. Are we not leaders in our own right? Intuitively,
we understand what leadership is when we see or experience it, but rarely do we
take the time to analyze what makes these people leaders. What then is
leadership? And do we as “regular Joes” and “regular Janes” have what it takes
to be leaders? The essay that follows is an attempt to demystify the notion of leadership
by clearly defining what is leadership; and simultaneously trace my journey (a
regular Joe) over the past 25 plus years of my leadership experience in higher
education, within the context of my leadership philosophy, and evaluate this
experience against the requirements of the twenty-first leader.
WHAT IS
LEADERSHIP?
From the outset, it is important to
understand that leadership is a relational process of people working together
to accomplish change or to make a difference that would benefit the common
good. In other words leadership is about relationships. Any individual can be
part of the leadership process whether as a formal leader or an active
committed group member. The process of leadership is not about things, it is
about people. It is a relational process
that has key elements of inclusion, ethical practices, empowerment, and
purposefulness.
In applying this notion of leadership to the abovementioned
revered leaders we see that every one of them met and exceeded the fundamental
tenets of leadership. Each had a clearly defined vision and purpose that they
communicated frequently and continuously to all within earshot to achieve “buy
in”, thus, creating a mass movement. Each had a deeply help philosophical belief
in “doing the right thing” to bring about change for their fellow man. Each
sought to empower others to work together to bring about the change for the
common good. But what is absolutely clear is that the role that each of them
played was about improving the lives of people. And some paid dearly for their
deeply held convictions: Martin Luther King Jr. with his life, and Nelson
Mandela with incarceration for more than half of his life.
It is important to note that none of the
aforementioned revered leaders were born great, but each achieved the reverence
and greatness that was bestowed upon them, because each accepted the heavy
mantle of leadership which the situations that confronted them along their
lives’ journey dictated, overcame the status quo, and radically transformed the
world.
But leadership is not only about revered
leaders doing great things. It is also about “regular Joes and Janes” doing the best they
can within the sphere of his/her authority and responsibility to bring about
change for the common good, and thereby improve the lives of others.
