About Leaders and Leadership

^{Originally published in The Way on February 8, 1941}

During the month of February our minds inevitably turn to two of America's greatest leaders, to Washington and Lincoln. Thinking of leaders, we think of some of the necessary qualities of a leader. We think of some of our own leaders of the present day and wonder if they have the qualities necessary for a leader.

Too many people when thinking of the attributes of a leader think first of the honor of it. They may think of the monetary benefits. They think of everything but the responsibility of a leader. It has well been said that many “think of leadership as the spire of the cathedral, not as its foundation.”

It would be well for leaders and would-be leaders to remember that there is a compulsion about success. It is not enough to be useful and active until leadership is won.

The liner which has made a fast crossing of the ocean, ever afterwards lives under obligation of its own record. Each successive voyage is compared and should the liner descent into the ruck of the six or seven day vessels there would gather around its name something of disappointment, even a tinge of shame.

So it is with high achievement in any sphere. The football team which is at the top of the league and succumbs to one almost beneath the horizon of popular knowledge becomes a target for the wits and cynics. The boxer who has had world honors and goes down to a jab from a novice becomes an object of derision. The novelist who has produced a notable work of art and then perpetrates a pot-boiler has to endure the barbs of comparative criticism. The leader who “falls down on his job” meets scorn not honor. There lies upon every man the obligation to achieve the highest and to live up to it.

To think of leadership only for the honor is to think superficially and unsoundly. Such thinking takes into consideration only the leader, and not the people to be led.

Most people need leaders, but good, sincere leaders, leaders with a sense of responsibility. They hunger for leaders as they hunger for food, for light and air. They drink the inspiration they get from a leader as the thirsty will drink cold water. The need, the desire of men and women for inspirational leadership is the fact by which all the qualities of a leader must be estimated. The need is not for someone to honor, but for someone who can give them inspiration, who can serve their needs.

Men and women often want guidance in making up their opinion. They have a deep instinctive need of someone who can touch in them the springs of action, who can make their heart beat faster or their mind work quicker.

There is not one of us but, looking back, we can see that the formative things in our life were little phrases either of criticism or approval from those above us, glimpses of action in them which became for us an example, a model upon which consciously or unconsciously our character was shaped. These things remain a need for most people to the end of their lives. Civilization and education may disguise it; but they cannot eliminate it.

This inspirational leadership was never desired and needed more than it is today. We feel the lack of good leaders. Let us help raise them for the future through the influence of our own Church, our schools and our own press.