On Leadership, Part Two

[boarrider]

Hello again.

This one shouldn't be as long.

First, though, I want to say this: heading from Nichoftime's to the friend whose apartment I am sleeping at last night/early this morning, I realized that...well...last night's post was, and was not, the post I really wanted to make.  In short, I felt it was too personalized and less about what I'd meant to

Comments

[freydis]

I agree 110% with what you've said above. I also think a leader is someone who does. They don't just talk. Its not easy to go out and put together a gathering, which is why very few people do it. But I know far too many people who talk big, and do nothing. I know far fewer people who talk big, but back it up. And I know even fewer who rarely talk, and just do. That's what I look at. Someone who truly cares about their community, and wants to see it grow, and takes steps to make sure that happens. That is a leader.

Oh, yeah, I was JUST having this conversation earlier today. :D

[boarrider]

Yep. I still think that another one of the main tests for leadership is to ask people in a community who their leader is. The one they point to is the leader, no matter what other people might say on the subject :)

[dscarron]

I have yet to hear for a better test of leadership then the laugh test.

Respect is a two-way street. One-way is parasitic, subservient or enabling.

As a religion if we give up our standards then our words and deeds are meaningless and purposeless. Our traditions become the inane rambling of folks long gone. The exceptions swallow the rules. It's easy to be a leader who goes along with whatever the crowd speaks. It's much more difficult to stand in their path. But as good kin have said when the Giants rise up will you stand besides Thor?

[boarrider]

Absolutely - moral fiber is like a tea; only in hot water do you learn how strong it is.

[willowwolfe]

Ageed! It may be my catholic background leaking through but I have always felt that self aggrandizement is not the same as self respect. It is better to have ones behavior speak for itself. I do take issue when a person goes on and on about all they have done...I dunno, facts are one thing but there is a thin line where it becomes ridiculous.
Leadership can either be a burden that causes one to be controlling (or feeds the beast) and resentful of others who are not doing whatever the one in charge thinks they ought to. OR ~ it can be a simple thing, a way of living and believing that causes others to want to follow the walk you have due to your walking your talk..

Honor & Integrity

[trumoonbear]

Great stuff, Patty.

Honor is a much-discussed term in our community, and rightly so given that the historic (original) pagan/heathen definition and contemporary meanings are not quite the same.

I believe that the essential quality of honor that most applies to leadership is integrity... being a whole person and being true to your word.

If a person cannot laugh at themselves, then some vital part of their being is missing, or at least temporarily out of whack (and seriously so). They are like a pitcher with a hole in it, trying in vain to carry water.. unfit to serve unless and until mended.

Re: Honor & Integrity

[boarrider]

Quite right, sir :)

Integrity...there's a whole 'nuther blog post on that topic. I shall chew.