president Alfred Gottschalk said, “Character is vital in a leader,
the basis for everything else. Other qualities would include the
ability to inspire trust, some entrepreneurial talent, imagina-
tion, perseverance, steadfastness of purpose.... Character, per-
severance, and imagination are the sine qua non of leadership.”
An Irish proverb is pertinent: “You’ve got to do your own
growing, no matter how tall your grandfather is.”
All of these leaders have consciously constructed their own
lives and the contexts in which they live and work. Each is not
just actor, but playwright, hammer and anvil, and each, in his
or her own way, is altering the larger context.
The means of expression are the steps to leadership:
- Reflection leading to resolution.
- Resolution leading to perspective.
- Perspective leading to point of view.
- Point of view leading to tests and measures.
- Tests and measures leading to desire.
- Desire leading to mastery.
- Mastery leading to strategic thinking.
- Strategic thinking leading to full self-expression.
- The synthesis of full self-expression = leadership.
Leadership is first being, then doing. Everything the leader
does reflects what he or she is. So that is the next turn in our
tale—to follow the leader, “Moving Through Chaos.”
On Becoming a Leader