Originally Posted by Anis rehman

Here is the essay which i wrote on leadership.I would like you comment on it critically. LEADERSHIP

From time immemorial, people have been led by leaders for their economic, social and religious amelioration. People always looked towards their leaders for guidance and inspiration. A nation without a leader is unimaginable. In one form or another leaders were always there to steer the ship of a nation to its final destination. They inspire and motivate the people. They are the mouthpiece of their grievances and demands. They led from the front and exhort the people to do efforts jointly for their rights. They unite the people and persuade them to make efforts diligently with a common objective.
History is replete with many great leaders who showed light to common people. For example Muhammad (PBUH) was a great leader. He drove away ignorance from the Arab land and proved to be a beacon of light for the Muslim Ummah. Similarly Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi were the two great leaders of Indian-subcontinent. They were instrumental in breaking up the yoke of slavery for the Indian people. Abraham Lincoln and Mikhail Gorbachev were the two great leaders of the superpowers of this world. The former gave the perfect ideal of democracy ant the later introduced many reforms in USSR and ended the cold war between US and USSR . They did a lot of efforts for the social and economic uplift of their respective nations.
No one can deny the fact that today’s world also need great leaders for it’s prosperity and peace, irrespective of the fact that today people are more aware of their rights and obligations due to the spread of education and information technology. Today, our modern world is in need of great leaders as it needed them in the past.
Leadership is an art, not a science. A leader can improve his abilities through constant effort. He has to keep liaison with the common people. He should know what their problems are. He should meet them quite often and the people should feel that he is one among them and not an alien. If a leader intermixes with the common people and tries to understand their grievances then the people will start loving him and he will gain the respect and confidence of people. He should stand by the people through thick and thin.
There are also some leaders who always use poor people for their own petty interests. They try to lure the common people in their gambit with their eloquence and lofty promises. These leaders might win the support of people for the time being but in the long run they will be rejected and subsequently the will fall into obscurity. A true leader should not make false promises. If he cannot do a thing for the people he should be truthful and honest about that. He should be a man of action rather than a man of words because actions always speak louder than words.
A leader should be prepared to face all the difficult situations and should prove his mettle in worldly affairs. He should stand like a firm rock against difficult times and should not leave his people in lurch. He is the conscious of the poor people. He is also answerable to God for his actions and for the gift which God Almighty gave him in the form of qualities of leadership. So he has to take great care while performing his duties as the lives and future of so many people depend on him and he will be answerable before God.
As William Shakespeare says in his famous play Twelfth Night, “Some people are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them”. If we slightly modify this statement, it also goes true with leadership. So we can say that, “some people are born leaders, some become leaders through their achievements and some have leadership thrust upon them”. Some people in this world are born leaders. It is engrained in their blood. They cannot but choose to be a leader. They have all the fine proportions and qualities that befit a leader.
There are some other classes of people who become leaders through their achievements. Their foremost objective is the welfare of their people. They leave no stone unturned to redress their grievances. They are the true representatives of their people. They win the hearts of the people through their work and are reckoned as great leaders.
The third category of leaders is those who become leaders through force majuere. Leadership is thrust upon them willy-nilly. People start expecting from them and they try to come true to their expectations. These people take leadership as a sacred gift from God. They believe that the salvation of people lies in their hand. If they carry on their work with full determination they are remembered forever, if not they are forgotten.
Leadership is not a mean in itself but it is a means to an end. If a leader cannot achieve his aim then he does not deserve to be called a true leader. A leader is a dreamer, just like Martin Luther King who dreamed of a world free of racial prejudices. Although his dream was not fulfilled in his own life time but the realization of it in the form of Barack Hussain Obama, as the first ever black president of United States .
Nothing is unachievable for a true leader. If he is committed, honest and inspired, he can give practical shape to his dreams. Nothing is impossible in this world. A leader should not lose hope in face of difficulties. He should stick to his principles and be committed.
In conclusion we can say that leadership is an art, the basic tenets of which are honesty, truthfulness, commitment, inspiration and faithfulness. If a leader wants to be successful he should try to serve the people in every possible way and in return he will get the confidence and respect of people.