"There is no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher."
This is one of the few adages that has deeply impressed me. It came back to me today after hearing of the head of a voluntary organization’s laments amid the alleged apathy of his constituents. A leader who has to complain about how his followers aren’t exactly following… this kind has no capacity to lead at all.
Leaders, while they must be endowed with the drive to move forward and outward, have to have the humility to look inwardly in order to evaluate himself. When a good leader sees weaknesses in the group, he does not assign blame to anybody but himself. Perhaps there’s something wrong in the way that he tries to motivate his people. Maybe he isn’t addressing the particular needs of the group — for what indeed is leading but serving?
Not everybody can become a Gandhi or a John Paul II, but people who have enough marbles should be able to figure out that effective leading does involve charisma. I’m not trying to make a list of the qualities of a good leader here. But, I’d just like to point out that when within a group there is apparent lack of pathos, more often that not it wouldn’t be the fault of anybody else but the one who’s supposedly acting as the leader.
