now, try to name only one larger-than-life Leader, one who could fill the role of FDR, or Ike or De Gaulle, or Churchill.’” Most of our leaders today are decidedly average, and do not promote or lift us or our hopes on the wings of higher purpose and energy. They miss the leadership skills that Bennis and others are dedicated to teaching. The skills that are according to Bennis are so vital for leadership are:
-Judgement and character.
-Persuasive ability to get people to accept the idea.
-Candour.
-Constancy.
-Conceptual skills
-Strongly defined sense of purpose.
-Potent point of view
-Limited number but clearly defined objectives.
-People skills.
Importantly Bennis believes that leaders are not born — but are self made. All the above points are a framework of skills that combine character traits and psychological dispositions. It is a complicated and interesting mixture of these two ‘concepts’ that seems to produce the leaders of human society. First we shall look at the issues of character and use Bennis’ ideas (below in Italics) to provide a framework and then we will look at Churchill and other leaders of this century. For simplicity I have grouped Bennis’ ideas and other concepts of leadership into the following categories;
In time of change and tumult, extraordinary effects are expected from the ordinary human. The modern Christian and secular era which began with the rationality of Descartes, was a keen departure from the more fatalistic, deterministic concerns that had befuddled man since the time of the ancient Greeks. In the philosophy of antiquity, progress did not exist. The human condition was cyclical, in the hands of Gods, and