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Zenith
Zenith
August 21, 2001
"The paramount accomplishment for a leader is to successfully create conditions that allow followers to fulfill their aspirations. However, it is seldom the case that followers will either recognize, or thank, their leaders for doing so. The highest reward for leaders then, is the satisfaction that comes from self-fulfillment, as Lao-tzu understood twenty-six hundred years ago:
A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worst when they despise him.
'Fail to honor people,
They fail to honor you';
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will all say, 'We did this ourselves.'
For a leader, it doesn't get any better than that (O'Toole, 1999, p. 325)."
Reference: O'Toole, J. (1999). Leadership a to z: A guide for the appropriately ambitious. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.
* Leadership A to Z is available on loan at the OSU Leadership Center. A listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/
Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2009-01-14
