Real Leaders Fight For Their Beliefs

The adage that "It's lonely at the top," is particularly applicable when it comes to the responsibilities and necessities of effective leadership. Being a leader means having the inner strength to fight for one's beliefs, regardless of popularity. Effective leadership often means doing what one believes is both right thing and the necessary thing, regardless of whether others are willing to voice their support. Unfortunately, over the last three decades, I have observed that the vast majority of volunteer leaders often get involved in leadership positions with an unclear concept of what it means to be a leader. While volunteer leaders must learn to effectively utilize the services of the paid staff, leaders who believe that being a volunteer leader is not time and resource consuming, are often ill- prepared and ill-equipped for their positions.

Every organization strives for an effective, strong, creative and capable paid staff. However, that is often not the case, as staffs often have turnover, or the previous volunteer leadership used the staff in a different manner than the new leader plans to. Since so many organizations overlook and neglect effective and meaningful training, for both volunteer leaders, as well as for staffs, there is often a dramatic learning curve required, and often the necessities are never learned in a timely manner. This often causes frustration, misunderstanding, and blame.

Leaders must understand that being a leader is not and should not be a popularity contest. Volunteer leadership should not and cannot be largely ceremonial, without any real substance. True leadership is necessary to guide an organization to its full potential, and identify strengths and weakness, and necessary evolutions. Since often the selection process for volunteer leaders is far from ideal, it results in the ascension of individuals to leadership positions who are sadly ill-prepared to assume such positions. Many organizations utilize the concept of "line officers," with the concept being that serving in leadership roles for a period of time makes one better prepared to assume the mantles of top leadership once the time comes. Just as in most other things, these individuals fail to realize that experience and expertise are far different entities, and unless the "line officers" are adequately trained, when they ascend they are often ill-prepared.

Just as in any political situation, many volunteer leaders continue to act like they are "campaigning" for an office, rather than properly governing from that office. While campaigning often depends to a large degree on popularity, effective leadership and governing requires a volunteer leader to realize when proper governance and leadership is far more important than mere popularity.

I have observed that most organizations find it challenging to find individuals willing to be volunteer leaders. While there are many factors for that, the most effective and well run organizations realize that ongoing and continuous leadership and pre-leadership training is essential if one wants to develop true leaders.

There Is No "I" In Nature

We live in an ecosystem that's made-up of subset and superset ecosystems. They are inter-reliant and by their nature are very fragile. This fragility ensures the ongoing evolution of the same ecosystem that relies on this mechanism as its method of survival and development.

Humankind is an ecosystem within this ecosystem. Unbalance in an ecosystem creates shifts that alter our ecosystem for the better; survival. Sometimes this happens at the cost of some specious as we have seen with the dinosaurs. If humankind really desires longevity in this ecosystem, we need to respect this balance or suffer the worst possible outcome for our kind.

All ecosystems are constantly in a state of change and rebalancing as they become more and more resilient. Humans are one phase of this ongoing ecosystem change. So by design, we are transient and as we transition to our next stage (should there be one), we need to work collectively towards this aim. There are many nascent initiatives, towards this goal, some spiritual, some industrial and others conceptual. I believe that the real answer lies in the "WE". The energy that lives these ecosystems is one energy and it is the same energy that is us. It is one and the same energy that lives and breaths us as does trees, and every other living organism. As one, we are able to continue the evolution of our species. As "I", we are one-by-one, driven by the greed and ego of "I" destroying the "We", our same humanity as we destroy our planet.

The "I" results from our upbringing, in a society that has been galvanized by the success of the individual. But this is a misguided notion as real success stories are underpinned by the work of a collective rather than one individual. The greed of our Ego is driving us to compete at any cost, in the process losing ourselves, our families, our sense of compassion and more importantly humankind, as we race blinded by the objective of being the ultimate winner who, in our culture is defined as the one with most money.

There is no "I" in nature but the collective "We" that includes the cosmos, our solar system, our beautiful planet, the trees, the oceans, you and I. Our fear and shame drives our Ego to achieve at all cost, in the process losing everything. And yet, the alternative brings so much more adundance, peace and happiness, bundles of compassion and a humanity that lives as one with nature and itself.