Asmae Azzamouri
Morocco World News
Oujda, July 7, 2013
Generally, people tend to believe that leadership is about making crucial decisions and governing everything and everyone through their steady imposition. This opinion is very common, which I even held myself until not long ago. However, being engaged in various business and educational activities, I began to see things from a new and different angle, thus let me clarify this misconception.
Throughout history, leadership has been a major theme of which millions of stirring things have been written about -though they might not be explicitly stated, but implicitly mentioned. In due course, heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Gamal Abdel Nasser were entitled “leaders” based on certain criteria that, I think, young people should fulfill to become good leaders one day.
Having a vision is an important quality that differentiates leaders from the rest of the world. Without a vision, a person cannot inspire nor motivate but, worst of all, he may not be able to bring the change that both society and population is in need of. In this regard, leadership is beyond reach. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a future in which blacks and whites could have equal rights didn’t only bring about a sudden revolution but it gave birth to one of the greatest leaders history has ever known.
There is nothing more depressing and discouraging than witnessing the withdrawal of your role model from war because of fear or fatigue. A good leader should be committed to his job and his promises; he should set his heart, mind and soul to the causes he fights for and never give up because of challenges that certainly lie ahead.
People, even the very ordinary ones, can never be inspired by a quitter. A quitter could never be given the title of a “leader” as the one who truly believes in the beauty and importance of his visions until the end. The latter creates lasting change.
Finally, a good leader should have a sense of humor. Some believe it is insignificant, but for me it’s a leading skill that only few can master. Humor and laughter occupy a special arena in human’s daily life because it erases tension and stress, especially the ones caused due to work.
With a good sense of humor, a leader can open channels of communication and lighten the mood within groups he works with, he can raise moral of his followers when things fall apart and above all he makes everyone love and respect him. In this context, the American businessman Stephen Covey said once: “The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, ‘Wrong jungle!’”
