Quality

I've been thinking lately. Well, I do that lots... Thinking... I think I think at least.... yeah, probably at least 3 times a day. Maybe more.

Today I finished a really awesome leadership camp with the Pride of Utah Band Leadership Team (BLT). It was awesome. But it really got me thinking. We talked a lot about qualities of leaders, and what qualities we want to amplify. We made a list.

A lot of lists had things like
Smiling
Laughing
Compliments

Those are qualities that make good leaders. I agree. I think you can earn someone's respect by being kind to them. However.

I think the true qualities of leadership are qualities that not every person can have, or talents that not every person can have. Anyone can smile, laugh, and share compliments. So why isn't everyone a leader? Lots of people are followers.

This may be a little twisted, but I think to truly find what the real qualities of leadership are, we have to look to the people who were terrible people. Who weren't known for their smile and laugh, and sense of kindness.

Honestly, ok this really is twisted, I look to Hitler and Stalin for leadership techniques. Those men were terrible men. They convinced thousands, nations of people to do terrible things. They were that good of leaders.

So I'd say the important things of leadership are not so much being nice. I think it's easy to get to be a leader if you're happy go lucky. But we're not always happy go lucky. And when you lose that, that's when we see what kind of leader a person really is. Like a President who guides their nation through a tragedy. They don't do it through smiling and laughing. They do it through effective communication, through an in depth knowledge of how to handle the situation, and they learn it through perseverance and not giving up.

I dunno. I'm not saying be like Hitler. But I think there are valuable things about leadership to be learned from this world's most corrupt leaders.