Good leadership requires a balance of knowledge and skills. Leadership is a profession. It is not self-evident that ’the best student in the class’ is automatically the best leader.
And leadership starts with personal leadership!
Doing justice to yourself as a person, based on your uniqueness, your qualities, your skills, your connection with the immediate environment, but indeed also based on your ideals and desires, is where it starts. And there is often great potential there.
Leadership requires courage and authenticity
Developing yourself takes energy, commitment and is confrontational. It requires, among other things, decisiveness, perseverance, sincere attention and, above all, time.
In modern leadership, the focus is on building genuine connections with others. It’s not just about having knowledge but having the right skills that matter and knowledge. It’s not about individual egos but recognizing the significance of the team and working together collaboratively.
One of the oldest known scriptures describing the essence of leadership is the Tao Te Ching. The text dates from approximately 600 BC. A quote:
“The best leaders are those who are barely noticed by their employees;
Next, come the leaders who are loved and praised;
Then come those who are feared;
The worst leaders are those who are despised.
If you don’t trust your employees, they become unreliable. The best leaders walk the talk and don’t talk too much. When they have completed their task, their people say:
“Wonderful! We made it… all on our own”
