Neculai Fantanaru
Everything Depends On The Leader
Everything Depends On The Leader
It is nice to meet an old friend, to stay with him for a coffee and to spin memories. However, yesterday's meeting with Mihai was a short one. He actually looked like a man troubled with doubts and ashamed of himself. These are the words that he shared with me, with a great discontent in his soul:
"Being happy means not to feel the disgust, sadness and compulsion, but to enjoy the sunshine that enlightens your mornings. But I can't enjoy anything; I can hardly relax because, every day, I must go to that demanding and stressful job. Every morning I'm terribly afraid to open my eyes. I'm tortured by the idea that I must return there. Please, believe me, I can't endure, I can't stand this job anymore. For a long time now, I've started thinking to go, to leave that cursed hell.
I can't perceive but a single word: To leave ! To leave ! To leave ! To leave that job once and for all, to escape from that prison where I'm restricted only to the personal desires of an authoritarian leader, to run as far as I can from him, look for something else to enjoy, to banish from my heart that bitter taste of disappointment and weakness. And, sooner or later, I'll really do it: without thinking, without giving any explanation, without saying a single word of goodbye, I'll leave. I'll simply leave."
It was assumed in a very irrational way that the act to protect the value of freedom, condemning in a way or another the attempt of leaders to shape their subordinates at will, is in fact a violation of an ethical regulation – important for understanding a pragmatic vision of a reality perceived as standard foundation of sustainable development strategies. This is totally wrong.
Because, on the one hand, a man can be decisively influenced only if it is willing to sacrifice itself voluntarily, by directing its motivation opposite to the initial advancement towards normality. On the other hand, the introduction of expansionist measures to promote practices, regulations and policies, exclusively under constant forces of "cutting" the pieces that complete his personality through overload indicators only manages to annul the rights acquired by education and qualification, by assuming the fact that he is working for the benefit of others.
The inner world of an individual starts to shiver if he is dominated by the feeling of sadness. Certainly, Mihai is not the only one overwhelmed by the bitterness of life, disgusted by his very demanding job and by the whims of the boss, which probably draws some very complicated tasks. The only joy of those who are in Mihai's situation is, inevitably, to resign or to find something better.
Self-worth has the full effect of that manifestation of decision-making power linked to the sublime idea of human dignity, the inalienable quality of every person endowed with the reasoning of serving a higher purpose.
The leader is not always the embodiment of an angel fallen from heaven for watching over you. You cannot always adore him like he would be a saint who has appeared on your way to remove your life's anguish and bitterness. Sometimes, or often, he deceives your trust, feelings, devotion, causing instability, anxiety and uneasiness in your heart.
A skilfull leader enflames in people the desire to fulfill the activities they carry out, by unlocking their energies and amplifying their enthusiasm. If one of his subordinates is facing difficulties, he, reading his emotions and his feelings, takes a load of his heart (which lies with all its weight on his present) and helps him revive.
A skillful leader removes, following an ethic in the forming and propagation of elite and models, all that is oppressive in life of his employees, by inducing in them a sense of success. Not one of frustration or dissatisfaction. Just as a doctor, he takes care of people like of some patients. That's part of his duties.
We consider it an essential value that the sublime of an ambition, that of imposing yourself and daring to manifest yourself as a free man, is considered a modified form of beauty, an exercise of authenticity that has escaped any conditioning. And just as aesthetics is the science of beauty, in which a treaty of perfection cannot be framed because it is relative, so too must self-care not speak of grandeur unless we see it as an interest in capitalizing on new territories of the war between what it means to experience the results of others’ thinking and what it means to live in your world.
Because the art of success and the aesthetics of life, as a result of self-creation, portrays both greatness, as it depicts the comedy of identity, as it depicts all that can be an interest in the liberation from the bitter slavery of inferiority to all those who dominate the position and by role.
Just as an acrobat asserts himself by the sense of balance and through a special motric coordination, so you, to shape people's attitudes, to change the climate of your organization from "arctic" to "tropical", you have to impose that provider which immediately makes you popular, and to adopt a style of leadership in light of their needs.
Put the mark of your being in the human soul, so that their final perception of you to be in accordance with their tendency towards full completion.
In the search of the Emerald Land is running every man jack. It is hard to find it. However, the leader has the role to provide a favorable climate in the workplace, which allows both the development of interpersonal relationships, as well as the development of creativity, the increase of individual efficiency and the decrease of professional stress.
All the people need an inner break, a relaxation of the too tense feelings. They cannot be oriented toward performance as long as the activities that they carry out exhausts them physically, and mostly mentally.
The happiest moment of a man should not be only when stepping in the company; it must persist throughout the period of employment. The company must also be a kind of spiritual refuge, a comfort of the mind, an emerald land where people can be crossed by that sublime feeling of great joy, of the true "green" of hope, and of safety, at the same time. Their enthusiasm there must be so intoxicating that they would lose all concerns.
Why read this book? Because it is critical to optimizing your performance. Because it reveals the main coordinates after that are build the character and skills of the leaders, highlighting what it is important for them to increase their influence.
The essential characteristic of this book in comparison with others on the market in the same domain is that it describes through examples the ideal competences of a leader. I never claimed that it's easy to become a good leader, but if people will...
For some leaders, "leading" resembles more to a chess game, a game of cleverness and perspicacity; for others it means a game of chance, a game they think they can win every time risking and betting everything on a single card.
I wrote this book that conjoins in a simple way personal development with leadership, just like a puzzle, where you have to match all the given pieces in order to recompose the general image.
The aim of this book is to offer you information through concrete examples and to show you how to obtain the capacity to make others see things from the same angle as you.
Without considering it a concord, the book is representing the try of an ordinary man - the author - who through simple words, facts and usual examples instills to the ordinary man courage and optimism in his own quest to be his own master and who knows... maybe even a leader.
