The Heart of a Leader

In every collective human undertaking there is always someone who sets the direction of individual efforts and involves individual members towards a common goal. Such person is a leader – a special being who plots the journey and guides everyone along the way.

But not all who are assigned to handle people are leaders. Many so-called leaders are in the position simply to provide a titular head to a group. Many don’t have a vision or, if they do, don’t know how to communicate it down the line. Many lack the skill to truly involve people – and not just simply encourage them to contribute to the group endeavor.

A true leader assumes full responsibility of the performance of his group. Hence, he is willing to do personally whatever tasks he delegates to each member of his group. But, out of good judgment, he is careful about doing that. He delegates authority to others under his leadership and then gets out of their way. In this way, he breeds other leaders.

Leaders devise efficient procedures for effective teamwork among his members. These include planning, direction, and control. Leaders set lines of responsibility, clearly defining the functions of each member of the group. Most importantly, leaders nurture each member in order for individual abilities and talents to fully develop.

One way by which leaders motivate their members, and often elicit steadfast loyalty, is satisfying individual needs. This begins with the understanding that people can do and perform their assigned tasks for their own personal reasons. For example, one person may value his job because it is a form of self-expression while another may want to keep his mainly because it is his source of income.

People in a group undertaking need a feeling of belonging. They need to believe in the value of the task they are made to perform. They need to feel that they matter as individuals, not simply as a sum figure in the organizational chart. Also, people need to feel that there is someone in charge of the whole undertaking who is in control and who cares about them. Leaders know all this.

There is another set of needs that leaders are tasked to satisfy – group needs. The group can be more or less than the sum of its members. If it’s more, the reason is often high morale. Members need to feel that their group is worth belonging to, that their combined efforts are being used to shape something worthwhile.

When both individual and group needs of members are satisfactorily served, the standards of their work performance are naturally superior. The main task of leaders, therefore, is to make any job meaningful to whomever it is assigned to. This entails much more than simply maintaining the order of things, contrary to what many incompetent heads think.

Leadership is not simply being concerned with lifeless records and reports of the organization. It is, basically, being concerned with the individual human components of the group. For one, leadership entails creativity, so that even routine assignments remain always exciting. It takes creativity to ensure that members do not lose sight of the higher goal – the higher significance of their job – amid the boredom of day-to-day work.

Leadership is art, not science, because it has heart. The ability to focus the group on a higher goal, thereby providing meaning and purpose to life, is the key attribute of a true leader. This is true in business, in politics, in religion, and in every other field of human endeavor.