To Lead Is To Be Human
I often resist thinking of myself as a leader. This resistance may come partly from the fact
that I was raised by a father who regularly told me, “Just remember, Park, today’s peacock is
tomorrow’s feather duster.” And it surely comes from the fact that part of me is still in the
grip of my youthful notion of a leader as someone who trails pomp, circumstance, and
clouds of glory…
But at some point I had an insight that revealed how distorted my youthful standards for
leadership were and how natural and widespread leadership actually is…
The insight was simple: we are not autonomous individuals, some of whom are more Alpha
than others. Yes, there are differences in social status among us, but they have more to do
with perception than reality. And yes, those perceptions breed a version of “reality” that we
have to cope with. But that version is only veneer. The deep and abiding reality—the reality
we do not invent, the reality we really have to cope with—is that we are interconnected
beings born in and for community.
If that is true, and it surely is, then leadership is everyone’s vocation, and it is an evasion to
claim that it is not. When we live in the close-knit ecosystem called community, everyone
follows and everyone leads. Leadership, I now understand, simply comes with the territory
called being human.
Everyone who draws breath “takes the lead” many times a day. We lead with actions that
range from a smile to a frown; with words that range from blessing to curse; with decisions
that range from faithful to fearful. Friends lead friends, parents their children, teachers their
students, bosses their employees, doctors their patients, politicians their constituents. Of
course, those roles and relationships often run in the other direction and can turn on a dime,
as when constituents lead politicians, students teach their teachers, and young children
provide wise guidance to their elders. And people can lead from the margins as well as form
the center, which is the beauty part of any ecosystem.
My point is simple, though its implications are not: with every act of leadership, large and
small, we help co-create the reality in which we live, from the microcosm of personal
relationships to the macrocosm of war and peace. When I resist thinking of myself as a
leader, it is neither because of modesty nor a clear-eyed look at the reality of my life. It is
because I have an unconscious desire to avoid responsibility. That is magical thinking, of
course. I am responsible for my impact on the world whether I acknowledge it or not.
So, what does it take to qualify as a leader? Being human and being here. As long as I am
here, doing whatever I am doing, I am leading, for better of for worse. And, if I may say so,
so are you.
~ Parker J. Palmer in Leading From Within: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Lead, 2007. San
Fancisco: Josey-Bass, xxiii-xxx.