Whether political, presidential, business, educational, corporate, or church and pastoral, leadership is complex and not what we would expect. Most people believe that leadership is glamorous, heroic, and comes with a high-profile lifestyle which involves public appearances, making speeches, driving expensive vehicles, and living in extravagant homes. But the roles of responsibility include high level stress, enormous pressure to perform, and entails a constant demand to always make the right tough decisions.
This message is not an essential guide on how to be a leader nor a “how to” of principles to become an effective leader. This is intended to inspire you to overcome the adversity that leaders face and build resilience through every trial. Acknowledging the darker sides to leadership should not dissuade you but make you proud of every triumph even if it is not affirmed from the outside. It may be seen in individuals and famous leaders that the magnitude of suffering someone has been through is proportional to the amount of power they exude. Taking on the challenges of leadership can ultimately lead to doing the impossible, realizing your dreams, and performing at your highest potential. Leadership is akin to a spiritual bootcamp that can be deeply humbling as well.
Knowing the downsides of leadership, for instance, its effect on the body, mind, and spirit, may empower you with knowledge, awareness, and most deeply important–self-knowledge. Who has the strength to take on these enormous tasks? Many think being a leader comes with respect and prestige and all the admiration, status, and power, but along the journey many find out a very different version. Leadership has pitfalls that demand that the leader learn from their mistakes and persevere. The fact that most leadership is public and involves the fate of multiple people, the responsibility is enormous. Who then has the strength? Maybe those who know both sides of success and of hardship and can remove from themselves the illusions.
So, let’s say you are standing at the helm of operations that affect a multitude of people, if you are informed of the pitfalls and the qualities required to navigate situations when you are often alone, you’ll know in advance what to expect and this knowledge will arm you with plans that benefit not just yourself but the whole.
Let that lead you to the realization that you are deserving of support even in the face of loneliness in these lofty heights, that your resilience is constant proof of your qualifications, and let it continue to cultivate in you a deeper capacity to feel compassion and respect for yourself and others.
Power and ability in making an impact is measured in equal proportion to the amount of hardship an individual has faced. Many great presidents who experienced bouts of mental illness were better able to respond to crises as opposed to presidents who did not experience mental health issues. Those leaders with “issues” were living in less illusion and could pinpoint the reality of situations with the fortitude they developed from experiencing hardships. Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, who runs the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, has an answer. In his new book, A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness, “Ghaemi lays out the argument that leaders with some mental illnesses, particularly mania or depression, are often better in times of crisis.” (interview with NPR, 2011)
Sometimes the internal demons are more difficult to face than the external trappings of being at the top. Leaders who have coincided with bouts of mental distress are more equipped than one would think and does not necessarily impair them from doing an effective job. Here they are, teetering on the edge, managing the complex dualities of the dark and light sides of power. Their leadership duties can be heartbreaking and even backbreaking, bearing a side that we often do not see, so the human behind the role has to be maintained, has to survive.
Many scholars link leadership with “madness.” Remembering leaders who were vicious dictators and rageful authoritarians, we see the madness and illness some must have possessed. Stalin and Hitler, to name a few, were given the ultimate power that was corrupting and ultimately devastating.
What kind of leader can you be?
Empathy is Poetry 