True Leadership

by: Stephen Palmer Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

In 2007 I was teaching young adults at a private school that my wife and I had co-founded with six other couples.

Using the five-pillar methodology of leadership education, we were once engaged in a simulation. Simulations are academic exercises where leadership skills are developed by role-playing fictional scenarios.

Understanding the French Revolution was vital in this particular scenario, and I had given this as a hint. Since simulations were new to my class, when the simulation began, I observed most of the class members sitting around complacently, confused about what they were to do. Others attempted to take charge through manipulation and force.

One student, CC Stucki, unnoticed by the others, picked up a few reference books and quietly retired to a corner to study the French Revolution.

When the simulation ended, I used this meek student to point out what true leadership is.

True leadership, I explained, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re the one in charge. It doesn’t mean that you have all the answers. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re in the limelight.

It’s quietly, humbly, and persistently identifying what needs to be done, then inserting yourself in whatever capacity that aligns with your strengths. That may be nothing more than performing research that few will ever know about. It may feel like you’re wasting you’re time. But you’ll know it’s right when it resonates with your natural gifts.

True leadership doesn’t require fame, fortune, authority, position, recognition, or superior knowledge. It requires a willing heart, humility, a desire to serve, a love of truth, and the dedication to persevere through difficulty.

We don’t know what impact our actions will have. Often, those who have the most impact never see it in their lifetimes. Cleon Skousen, for example, toiled in the trenches of liberty for decades. While he had a dedicated following during his lifetime, his contributions were relatively obscure. He died in 2006. His book The 5,000 Year Leap has been at the top of Amazon’s bestseller list all this week.

We can’t judge the validity of our actions by popularity. We must leave the judging up to the One to whom we must submit and patiently do our part in making the world a better place.

CC Stucki is a great example to me of true leadership. Let us follow her example and seek not power nor fame, but service and impact by applying our natural gifts.

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Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and persuasive writer with KGaps Consulting, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela. Stephen and Karina blog about their magical life on Palmer Journeys.