In his closing words at the end of his life king David from the antiquity compared a good leader with ‘sunshine in the morning after the rain.’ For a man who accomplished much in his generation and trained numerous leaders, this seems an unusual comparison. There is a notion of poetic romance in the imagery used to illustrate the concept of leadership here. Equally unique is the personality which the king brought to his own leadership style. He led men who were intensely strong and ferocious warriors. Yet he was a gentle-hearted man of poetry, music and romance. It is said of great leaders that they should have ‘thick skin and tender heart.’
Romance is a familiar concept. When a young man woos a woman, consciously and unconsciously he adapts to this new state of mind. He is fascinated, and thoroughly consumed in his passion. He starts enjoying the tangible as well as the intangible. He learns to create the atmosphere for love to grow. He takes risks. Leadership can be compared to the state of romance and a lot can be learned from the comparison. Passion, love for people, positivity of vision are at the core of the leadership persona. Leadership also thrives on the ability to create an environment of productive creativity.
Indeed leadership is a complex matter and can be seen from varied perspectives. There has been a research with similar title a few decades back. The title of the article by Meindl et al., ‘The Romance of Leadership’ has no resemblance to the idea we are considering. In this case the researchers were interested in the followers’ perspective of leadership. In this approach, leadership was regarded as ‘an experience undergone by followers’. This theory suggested that individuals are actively involved in constructing leadership rather than that leadership being simply what a leader does. However, my thoughts run more parallel to those of Tim Leberecht, the author of ‘The Business Romantic: Give Everything, Quantify Nothing, and Create Something Greater Than Yourself.’
Leberecht quotes researcher and writer Stowe Boyd in his book, “Work is increasingly “a thing we do, not a place where we go.” Of course, we all want success and security through our work, but we also all have an innate desire to connect with something greater than ourselves and to believe in something. Romance is possibly a key ingredient of happiness and meaning: it is the best way to describe a profound desire for the world’s beauty that cannot be captured in quantitative terms.
It is hard to be a true leader if you are in it for your own self. The leader must master the paradox of strength and humbleness. The leaders must build trust. They must lose control. They must learn the art of letting go. They must be moved by something deeper, larger and bigger than the thing they are leading. It must be thought through. It must take birth within. It must grow from inside and surround us on the outside – the romance of leadership.
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