In speaking with Dr. Joe Dispenza, Gregg Branden remarked that he finds the shift towards the quantum awareness needed to create a better future most in the general population. Where he sees it least is in the leadership of our nations. His experience underscores my grave concern with what I’ve called the “international leadership deficit.”

It sketching a post called Leadership NOW, I recalled a relevant essay on Leaders. It will do for starters as an introduction to what will follow.

Here goes:

ESSAY 4. LEADERS

Powerful individuals never show their strength, yet others listen to them because they seem to know. They radiate knowledge, but it is an intuitive knowing that comes from a direct understanding and experience with the ways of nature. — R.L. Wing, The Tao of Power

When it comes to answering the big questions such as what is going to happen to the world as a whole in five or ten years’ time, or even half-a-century hence, we are even more keen to find out what is likely to happen. For it will inevitably affect not merely our own future, but that of our children and grandchildren too. . . Fortunately, it is here that the world’s great seers and sages come to our rescue. — Peter Lemesurier, Nostradamus: The Final Reckoning

It is extremely valuable to train the mind to stand apart and examine its own program. . . Training without such education narrows and closes the mind so that the assumptions underlying the training are never examined. That’s why it is so valuable to read broadly and expose yourself to great minds. — Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

THE FRONT

According to Webster’s, “to lead” is to show the way, or direct the course by going before. To lead can mean to direct, guide, or cause to follow.

By extension, a leader is a person or thing that leads by directing, commanding or guiding as the head of a group or activity. In music, the leader is the conductor, who occasionally turns the lead over to soloists.

By definition, there are many kinds of leaders at every level of society. The scope of their responsibilities may be great or small. Followers can number from one to a multitude.

The native and institutional power any individual brings to a leadership role varies vastly. So also does the effect on others, either positive or negative. Leadership is not a fixed or absolute quality. Most of us act as leaders at one time or another, in one capacity or another. Most of us are leaders in some contexts, while followers in others.

Parents or caretakers who raise us are our primary role models. Next come teachers, who along with parents prepare us to live in the world and mold our early beliefs. Depending on their capacity for benevolence, they sow the seeds of trust or cynicism. Whether they feed or starve, honor or manipulate childish yearnings for acceptance and approval shapes our early years. The push/pull of positive/negative experiences later reflects in the quality of leadership we bring as adults to relationships and organizations.

Just as the seven energy centers influence conscious evolution, there are leaders who focus on each of these levels:

• At the base chakra level, leaders take responsibility for the everyday maintenance of our infrastructure, keeping the roads in repair, the streets safe, the electricity running, and stores stocked.

• At the second sacral level, they nurse, instruct and protect the young, the infirm, and those in need.

• At the third solar level, leaders command our armies, negotiate union contracts and run for public office.

• At the fourth heart center, leaders preach in the halls of worship, counsel those who seek solace and act as the peacemakers of the world.

• Leaders at the fifth throat center open and expand the boundaries of knowledge, helping us define our ideas and ideals.

• At the sixth, they serve as receivers of wisdom and transmitters of warnings about the future.

Wisdom traditions teach us to respect those more highly evolved than ourselves. They also hold those blessed with natural gifts and material abundance to a high level of accountability. It’s their responsibility to use their gifts to protect and uplift those they serve to the very best of their ability.

The immature look to more experienced teachers for guidance. But when we come of age, it is no longer appropriate to allow others to dictate our behavior. Ultimately, we must be led by the timeless, inner radar which informs us now as surely as it guided those willing and able to listen to stillness in ages past.

THE BACK

The positive complement of leaders are willing and worthy followers. Following implies loyalty, humility, sincerity and competence to comply with leaders’ decisions. The benefits of following include the opportunity to learn from those who know more and to share in projects they initiate for the common good.

The dark flip-side of leadership is coercion. Tyrants elevate themselves over others using psychological manipulation, intimidation and brute force. They inhibit and consume energy, discouraging free expression and growth. They can enforce the illusion of social cohesion, but cannot command love or loyalty.