Leadership

What makes a good leader?  Listening to Obama give his acceptance speech this afternoon, I thought back to five hours earlier to when Sho Ito stepped onto the podium in front of our orchestra.

It must be a very difficult thing to rehearse a piece that an orchestra has just played with another conductor.  A rehearsal that many had probably assumed would last a short morning carried into the afternoon and some members expressed increased irritation.  I'm not sure if Ito knew that we had just played this piece–he never made any acknowledgement of it.  But was there anything wrong with what he did, what he said?  He had the score memorized and he wanted to rehearse some things in a different way.  Yet for some reason the atmosphere didn't reflect enthusiasm.

Obama spoke of his gratitude for all the people that had supported him personally and that had helped steer the course of America.  As Obama said, it is because of us that America is the country that it is.  Regardless of political affiliations and opinions, Obama seems to be a leader to whom people will listen, even if not agree.  And he spoke of the role that the American people have played in making him a better president.

Would we have listened to Obama if he had led our rehearsal?  What makes a good leader?  Is there something in a person's voice that makes people listen?  Is it the things that they say, or the way that they move?  Is it an acknowledgement of those that they are leading that makes people follow?

It seems that there are many times in daily life that we are required to follow.  Maybe it is a conductor, or a teacher, a boss, a coworker or some other superior.  Maybe it is the needs of a child, or someone who is sick, or in need of help.  Sometimes we have to follow something more abstract such as rules or ethics, or governmental members that live far away who we've never met.  And it seems that perhaps just as often,  maybe without our knowing it, we are also leaders.  How do we affect others simply with our presence, with our words and actions and the way that we chose to live?

What makes people follow?  How can we create a voice inside ourselves that is one that carries these characteristics, one whom we ourselves will follow?