The Major Attributes of Leadership (#11 of 11): “Cooperation”

One of my favorite quotes goes as follows: “Early in life, we are concerned with our own success … but once we become true leaders we are concerned with the success of others”.

The truism here is that concern for only our own success, welfare and pocketbook by its nature alienates us from those whom we want to follow us. Regardless of education, people can easily sense a “one-way” relationship. By alienating potential followers, what we are left with is just our own limited resources of time, expertise, effort and funding. In essence, our “footprint” on the earth is small. Sadly, a great many people are fine with this and greedily hoard all rewards of success for themselves, thereby doing little or nothing to improve the world around them. However, by encouraging cooperative effort, by empowering our followers to be and do their best, and by sharing the rewards of success generously with them … in other words, becoming concerned with their success ahead of our own … what happens is that the cooperative efforts of the whole become greater than the sum of the parts. We generate an army of doers, thinkers, executers and leaders in their own right whose collective footprint on the earth becomes massive. This is the only way that a leader of vision can see their vision yield results both spectacular and earth-changing.

Think: Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa, Martin Luther King Jr.

Without leading through a spirit of cooperation, the impact of these men would have past on with end of their life or the sunset of their position of power and/or influence. Instead, the movements of such leaders has changed the world scene perhaps forever, with great masses of people benefitting from the collective efforts.  If you want to be a Prince or Princess … you need to see beyond your own gratification.