THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF LEADERSHIP
"A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent." - Douglas MacArthur
In times of crisis we look to our leaders for guidance on what to do, what to expect and how to react. Consequently, it is exactly during these volatile and precarious times that society's need for a reliable, outspoken and considerate leader is of more importance than ever. The decisions that they make and the recommendations that they give require scrupulous attention, as they are likely to decide the future of our society.
Leaders ought to learn how to balance being inspirational and comforting while continuing to be phlegmatic, deliberate and judicious in their decisions and actions. They must outline the difficult problems ahead and provide germane details in order to keep the public informed, while still exhibiting a certain amount of comforting confidence, without trying to minimize the gravity of the situation.
"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." -Martin Luther King Jr.
This statement implicitly emphasizes the impossibility of pleasing everyone at a time. So diverse is society's mentality nowadays that leaders' abilities to make decisions for the greater good of the population and cajole the people under their care to abide by the rules has become of paramount importance.
"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency" - Arnold Glasow
It is imperative that leaders remain vigilant, as a tardy response to a serious matter can have irreversible, detrimental consequences. In light of the novel coronavirus rapidly spreading around the world, leaders have displayed different attitudes and expressed various opinions. While most European leaders implemented stringent measures as a response to the coronavirus outbreak in Italy, others have displayed rather nonchalant attitudes by trying to downplay the gravity of the current situation, which only led to an exacerbation of it.
Moreover, it is also important that leaders from all over the world collaborate to alleviate the spreading of the virus. It is already known that Iran's supreme leader refused American assistance to fight the novel coronavirus citing a conspiracy theory claiming it could be man-made by the United States government, thus sacrificing the lives of millions of infected people. Therefore, leaders of countries such as China, U.S. or Iran must leave behind whatever tensions there may have existed between them in order to provide proper assistance to the infected and save the lives of millions.
All in all, it is blatant that this whole situation mostly depends on us, as a community, more specifically on the way we chose to respond to the measures now being implemented. However, leaders are the ones who need to guide us through this process, thus it is of utmost importance that they find a way to balance rigidity and compassion in order to display a reassuring confidence and win the public's trust.