Leadership

I'm sure you can tell from the scarcity of recent posts that I have been quite busy as of late. One item which took a lot of my time was a recent presentation at an interfaith conference on the environment. The presenter from the Baha'i commjunity was unable to make it, so I was asked to speak about the Baha'i perspective. As this is not a topic I am generally conversant in, I had a to do a lot of research. The results of this will be in the next post.


For now, there was an issue that came up at this conference that I feel warrants its own post: leadership, and the example set by leaders.


Some of the presenters who spoke before me were, to say the least, a bit negative. One even said that the situation was so hopeless that "we should take a gun to the children's heads and put them out of their misery". He was looking at my young son while saying this. As you can imagine, this did not go over too well with me.


So why do I mention this sad incident? Because the speaker is a leader of his community. He is an Aboriginal elder. This is not to condemn all Aboriginal leaders, but to merely comment on the singular example he gave, and use it as an example to make a point.


I do not find it a coincidence that his community (in general, not in specific) has a significantly higher suicide rate than the average. There are many reasons for this, and not just his example. When the leaders in any community tell people to kill themselves, and their children, there is a problem.


What can we do about it? Note that I do not ask what he can do, but rather what can we all do.


After this meeting, a woman came up to me, quite incensed over this man's talk, and said "Why on earth do people revere the wisdom of the elders, when they speak garbage like this?"


"The wisdom of the elders", I replied, "is quite profound, and worthy of our attention. Some of the elders, however, are in desperate need of healing. We should remember this when they speak of things so contrary to the wisdom of their people."


This example made me ponder the question of leadership, and the qualities we should seek in our leaders. When I contrast the upcoming US election, and the campaigning that is going on in that race, and the upcoming election of the Universal House of Justice, I see a stark difference in many areas.

In the US election, and in many elections worldwide, the ability to be elected is quite often based on the amount of money that one can afford to spend on advertising, speech writers and polls or research. Do these qualities lead to what we consider the best leaders?

In many other communities, the ability we seek in leaders is based on age or on physical strength or on the ability to out-argue your opponent. Do these necessarily find the best leaders?

In the Baha'i community we are told to seek people with "unquestioned loyalty" to the Faith, a "well-trained mind" (which is not the same as having a university diploma), "selfless devotion", "recognized ability" and "mature experience" (which is not necessarily the same as being elderly). By looking for these qualities amongst those we know, and seeing them acted out in daily life, we are in a better position to cast our votes in the best manner possible.

For many, this wlil raise the question of how this can work on the national or international level. It does, and I will write another article on how.

For this article, however, I just want to point out the role of leadership: helping set the vision for a community and carry it out in action. By virtue of being a leader, it means that you lead: others follow. When in this position, we must be very careful about the direction in which we go, and the example we set.

If, as leaders, we strive to tear down the accomplishments of others, then those we lead will do the same. If we strive to encourage, build up those around us, and work towards a better future (as opposed to a moving away from a flagrant injustice or dismal past), then those we lead will also work to build with us.

If we, as leaders, try to push those under us in a particular direction, then we are behind them, not in front leading. If we strive to set the example, then this becomes an attractive force and others try to move closer to where we are. By pushing, we exhaust ourselves, and rarely accomplish anything. By being an attractive force, and using the forces of attraction, then the others begin moving.

All that remains is that we ensure that which we find attractive is worthy. But then, this goes back to living a moral and virtuous life, and always striving to progress.

In the end, it doesn't really matter what we try to build. If it is sound and solid, and built on a firm moral foundation, it will stand and withstand the tests of time. If it is not, then it will fall. We can reflect on it, figure out where we went wrong, and try again. This, to me, is the basis of posi-genesis.