Does being a leader mean serving the people?
@lilblondiemjd (857)
United States
October 21, 2011 12:03pm CST
I was watching a show on the channel OWN last night called MISSrepresentation. It was a show about how the female gender is portrayed in society, politics, etc. I found it very intriguing, because there was a young woman, maybe about 16-18, who always chose to run for political office when it came to anything...School, clubs, etc. When she was a young girl, her mother asked her, "Do you even know what being a leader means?" She replied with, "Yes mama, being a leader means being a servant to the people." I thought that was so wonderful for her to say. I could not agree more. I think more often than not, political leaders view themselves as powerful beings who need to be bowed down to...Instead of the people who are supposed to protect us and accommodate us. In reality, they are servants to us. They're there to meet our needs and to make compromises to make our lives easier and more great. What do you feel about this? What do you think being a leader means, and do you think her opinion was on point?
5 responses
@vasumathi (436)
• India
21 Oct 11
In recent days we cant even see a true leader who serves people in reasonable way. They show interest in becoming a leader just to gain personal benefit. so we should be careful in selecting our leader.
@lilblondiemjd (857)
• United States
21 Oct 11
I totally agree with you. I think to become a true leader, one must be selfless and interested int he well being of those he or she is serving. Unfortunately, like you said, too many of those who become leaders are only interested in personal gain which can get quickly out of hand. I wish we'd be blessed with someone who was truly interested in the quality of our lives and countries as opposed to their own stance in society.
@ReViewMeMedia (3785)
• United States
27 Oct 11
If anyone wants to be great among, let him be a servant. That's what Jesus said and it's true.
@mammots (3209)
• Philippines
21 Oct 11
in politics there are only a few servant leaders. their numbers could only be counted with the fingers. these true blue servant leaders are easily identifiable by their assets. if you are in government and you have become filthy rich then that could mean that you have played the dirty games of politics. most politicians in the beginning run for the office with this noble "ideal" but in the end give in to the pressure of the rules of dirty politicking and politicians. its sad but its true. real servant leaders are an endangered species like the dinosaurs time will come when they can only be found in museums.
@captinjack (788)
• China
22 Oct 11
LOL. At the first glimpse of the words-"being a leader means being a servant to the people", i nearly laughed out. The girl's words are the standardized definition of officers in China. You know what we call an officer? "civil servant". Nowadays the word is hilarious to all Chinese because officers serve nobody except their relatives and themselves. You have no idea how corrupt Chinese officers are now. Sorry, i've carried it away.
gruble apart, i totally agree with the girl's definition. As a line in Spiderman goes, the more power you have, the more responsibility you should take. No free lunch in the world. Now that one is authorized with some power, he ought to pay for it. And serving the average is the basic way to realize his obligations.
@Lhenni (1242)
• Philippines
21 Oct 11
You're right to say that a leader is also a servant. They give orders to follow. He should be respectful of course. A leader should think what's best to majority of his community because let's face the reality that the leader can't please each and everyone he is leading. We can't deny that there's this people in the group who will come along the way and oppose to his order. This leftist will be the balancer of his goal to his community. Someone should challenge the path that a leader wants his group to take. We have a role to take to have a stable community. Let's be vigilant.
