Nothing corrupts like power.....
With great power comes great responsibility ... its a blessing its a curse ....

Two very cliched statements and yet two of the most relevent statements in today's world vis a vis leadership.

I was just thinking about what is leadership and these were the first two thoughts that came to my mind.

In the early days (pre engineering) leadership to me was all about power. The power to hold sway on the proceedings and to be incharge. To impose my views on the formulation of any action in an absolute manner without any discussion. Now my views on leadership are much more muddled than before. Is leadership only about power or are there greater depths that i have not as yet explored. I see lots of leaders around me and the only thing that seems to satisfy them is the power that they hold by virtue of leadership and that is what made me think.....
One important conclusion that i have drawn is leadership has to be taken with a tacit understanding that i am willing to take on the responsibility that comes with it and not just cling on to the power that is part and parcel of it. If i am a leader then i am responsible for the use of my power for the common good and not for just my egotic self appeasement. I guess i am just stating the obvious once again ...but i need to remind myself continuously that i should believe in the fundamental tenets of good leadership that i have inferred from past experiences and this is one of them.

Thoughts on leadership raise lots of issues and questions that could be the topic of many blog entries .... but before anything else i have found an old piece of paper that has as its contents two of the most influential sermons i have heard in my life..... sometime next week i am going to put them down here with my own perspectives on them.

Sleep and a feeling of guilt that precious study ;) time is wasted on this exercise are the only constraints on my flow of thought ................