Leaders have a range of influence far beyond any
normal person and it may even transform other people’s lives as many real life
stories support this.
Within the range of the concept of influence,
character is a very distinct element, because you cannot teach someone how
their character should be. Well, you may teach them, but what they will
really absorb is you as an example, not your lecture. How do you teach someone to be generous or
perseverant?
There is a story of a grandmother who furnished her
small beach house with very ugly and flimsy plastic furniture. Used to her
eccentricities, her grandchildren tried to tell her they weren’t good and necessary,
but she refused to listen to them or to give an explanation.
It took some time for them to learn the truth and many
years to understand the lesson: a neighbour single mother with two kids was
desperate in need of money to buy food, so the older woman bought her tables
and chairs to provide the woman with some money. That grandmother left a powerful legacy to
her grandchildren in the form of an example.
Leaders
don’t give lectures to help others in their own character development, as they
teach with their actions and intentions, instead of words.
(Excerpt from the book 82
Reasons to be a Leader)
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