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Four
Great Qualities
of
Leadership
I
T STARTS
early in life.
T his qua lity called leader–
ship.
Do you rcmember as a young–
ster on·thc playground, someone
wou ld say, "Lct's play a gamc"?
T hen anothcr would say, "Yeah,
let's do. Tommy and Johnny
will be captains and choose
sides."
What was there about the Tom–
mys and Johnnys that made the
other childrcn look to them as lead–
ers? l t seems thcy were always cap–
tains and got to choose the teams.
Most chi ldren do not stop to
think about it, they just acccpt that
in any group of youngsters a few
always seem to take the Jead.
During adolescent years, Jeader–
ship takes a more definitive form .
A coach notes the outstanding ath–
letic skill of a boy or girl on a team
and appoints him or her captain.
T he band director rewards talent
and long hours of practice and
music skills by naming a leader of
the group as drum major. Another
student who has personality and
stage presence is given the lead role
in a school play. The students
themselves usually select class offi–
cers based on the apparent Jeader–
ship skills of a few in the group.
After the educational years are
18
by
Ronald D. Kelly
Do you know what they are?
over, Jeaders emerge in business,
education and politics. But still,
only a few rise to top positions. The
majority stay buried in thc pack–
carrying out the policies and deci–
sions of their Jeaders.
Among our readers are thou–
sands of potential leadcrs. You who
are parents can help dircct your
children to undcrstand thc most
important qualities of leadership–
so they may be arnong those who
set the standards, not just those
who stand there and watch the
wor ld pass by.
No Easy Way
l t would be nice if there were 1
O
easy steps to develop leadership.
We could just write thcm down,
point by point, and everyone could
read them and become a lcader.
But that is not thc way lifc
works. As in the case with Tommy
and Johnny on the playground,
sorne people just seern to have nat–
ural Jeadership qualities from birth.
But not always do those young
Jeaders grow up to benefit man–
kind. Or fo r that malter thcy may
not grow up to be leaders at all.
Occasionally a rather quict and
shy youngster develops latcr in life
those qualities of leadcrship and
goes on to become a corporate pres–
ident or pol itical leader.
Leadersh ip abi lity, though, can
be developed. But it must be chan–
neled in the proper direction. As
one teacher
I
know told a set of
parents about their 10-year-old
daughter: "This young lady is a
natural Jeadcr. You rnust be certain
to guide her in the right direction.
When she grows up she could
either become President of the
United States or the leader of a
guerrilla gang."
Perhaps that story illustrates
how important it is to understand
not only what leadership is, bu t
also the responsibi lities entailed in
becoming a leader. There have
been many g reat Jeaders in history
who plunged the world into t rag–
edy. In most recent memory no
one can deny the leadership abili–
ty of Adolf Hitler whose leader–
ship brought about one of the
greatest catastrophes in thc hu–
man experience.
To understand leadership and
the awesome responsibility it
entails is essential to the whole des–
tiny of mankind. Today's leaders
are creating tomorrow's world. And
tornorrow's Jeaders are now in
training. To one degree or another
each of us has a responsibility to
lead today and to train tomorrow's
leaders.
The Quality of Greatest lmportance
Of all the qualities of leadership
The
PLAIN TRUTH