The best style of leadership is servant-leadership. Servant-leadership fosters a spirit of selflessness in meeting the needs of the people. Servant leaders go out of their way in serving those they lead. Their joy comes after serving the people. They work hard and invest themselves in the people and derive great satisfaction when those they lead succeed. They can do all this because they lead by love.
The Toronto Police's maxim reads: "To serve and protect." How appropriate a slogan! Love serves others. Love does not boss others around. Serving others is a great duty to humanity. It makes the earth a lovely place to live in. Serving others is a virtue that is impeccably humane, faultless, and flawless! Love looks for opportunities to serve others. This is the only industry that does not run out of work. There are a lot of folks out there that are craving your service: senior citizens, sick kids, street persons, the homeless, patients in hospitals, new immigrants, and the list is endless. Help is just a call away.
Too many people want to know how they can serve their world. Begin where you are with what you have. Serve with your time, resources, finances, talents, abilities, graces, position, and so on. Usually love doesn't need money; just a word of comfort, an act of kindness or a philanthropic deed can do. Most altruistic individuals are usually simple people with no great financial muscles. They simply give of themselves. They are selfless and unselfish. They go out of their way to improve other people's lives and therein make a difference.
To whomsoever you direct your love, there your greatness is. This principle helps leaders channel their useful energy in safeguarding the interests of the people. Your greatness is neither in the monuments you’ve built nor in the memorabilia have you accumulated through the years. Your greatness is in the selfless sacrifices you make for the people. If you want to leave a lasting legacy, invest yourself in the people. Help them reach their greatness and you’ll reach yours. Give them wings to fly and they will carry you up and high.
There is little love in what you say; much love is in what you do. Words are powerful. Words can change things. But when it comes to true leadership, deeds speak louder than words. You can say all you want, but it’s what you do that justifies or denigrates you. This is especially important in political leadership where the electorate grant their leaders the mandate to rule them. They expect their leaders to deliver on their campaign promises. They are watching them to live up to their words. It is what you do, not what you say, that will meet people’s needs!
Life's worst injustice is forgetting those whose labour has been done in love. Society is made of heroes who will never see a headline in the local press. It is these innocuous men and women who have made massive sacrifices for their communities who deserve recognition. Most of them are unnoticed because they don’t wear badges or uniforms, and yet they do a lot for the people. They are doctors, teachers, nurses, fire-fighters, engineers, soldiers, lawyers, and executives of huge corporations. But the majority of these local heroes don’t even have titles; they’re simply common people who love their communities and spend themselves for them.
Love Creates a Place of Influence
The most important place to exert influence is where you are. Whether you are a housewife, a student, a professional, or a parent, the people you immediately interact with are your primary source of influence. Begin where you are with the people around you. Influence them by love. Show it through your actions, behaviour, and attitudes. Model love before them in what you say and do. Do not disappoint them. Motivate them by love. Inspire them by love. Love is the greatest motivational force. People universally respond to love. That is why where there is love there is unity, cooperation, and friendship. Anyone can influence people when love is the motive.
In philanthropic activities and humanitarian efforts, love should be the key, because love is the best motive. People are afflicted, displaced, and affected where there are wars. There is hunger and poverty in many parts of the world today. There is loss of life and property in trouble-torn regions. And those people need to be loved. They genuinely need help. They deserve our sympathy and empathy. The best we can do is to publish their sufferings so that those who have the means can come to their rescue. Use what you have, and help alleviate their sufferings. Where the biggest need is, is the right place. Love is action and love cares for humanity.
Love Breeds Responsibility
Love is the ability to respond to challenges. A president of a country loves his nation when he leads the people well in difficulty times. A parent loves her children when she brings them up in dignity and discipline. A teacher loves her students if she teaches them the basic principles of success and imparts them for the future. A couple loves each other when they avert a divorce and stay on course. And the list goes on and on.
The labour of love comes with responsibility. When you decide to marry or take on leadership, you are courting with responsibility. You will not be alone any more. Throughout your life you will have to learn to care for those you love. Parents have a duty to love and care for their children throughout life. And leaders have a responsibility to help the people towards self-sufficiency.
Any man will be considered mature when he begins to show responsibility. Two things should be seen where there is responsibility: duty and dependability. Duty to country, to family, to the organization, or to a nobler cause, is a principal leadership calling. But leaders should also be dependable people. Those led should be able to count on them and to bank on their words. If they make a promise they should fulfill it. That’s integrity. Integrity is mature love. A man of integrity will influence his people for a very long time. Integrity preserves. Integrity protects the interests of many people. Leaders of integrity stand up to be counted and are dependable.
Love Equals Justice
There is nothing that hurts and dispirits the soul more than injustice. Where there is injustice, both the oppressor and the oppressed lose. Injustices break the will and release the venom of revenge and hatred. Injustice is anchored in discrimination, usually based on trivial grounds like one’s colour of skin, race, gender, or background. Discrimination can also be based on age, educational levels, status in life or sex. Injustice vituperates potential and pours scorn on civilization.
Love promotes justice. The world is increasingly becoming complicated, with every sector of society continuously exerting its rights. Sometimes in this type of arrangement different voices want to be heard. Politicians as well as advocacy groups insist that the rights of the minority should be given priority. Justice is at play. But justice is not in being politically correct. It is in the exercise of the equality of all men and women before natural law.
Natural law compensates legal law: the former is enshrined in the fact that all understand certain acts and behaviour to be consistent with it. Thus, an act which is legally accepted may in fact go against the ideals of natural law. We all have the duty to protect the rights of the marginalized. In doing so we should also respect natural law, to which all humans subscribe.
Love and justice are like the two sides of the same coin; in between is mercy. Mercy is antithetical to oppression, which is due to hatred. But justice happens because someone is merciful. Mercy is a grace we all should possess. It should inspire us to reach out to those who are not as privileged as we are. When we do this we give hope to countless millions going without food, shelter, or comfort. But in exercising mercy we are also freeing ourselves from the infamy of apathy.
Love Works Hard
Hard work is a universal value. And love is a desirable task. Love does not come naturally to many individuals; it has to be worked on. It has to be cultivated. You’ve got to make an effort to love. You don't simply sit there and hope love will work itself. Rather, you’ve got to conquer. You’ve got to strategize and win. You've got to persist and be patient. You’ve got to work at it until you are able to love effortlessly.
They say falling in love is easy. But staying therein takes effort. You are in love—stay just there. Work at it and survive. Do not give up easily. Romance is the art of working love out. It's taking love to the gym to strengthen its backbone. So many people do relatively well with romance in dating or courtship, but fail lamentably with love in marriage. Do not take your love life for granted. Love does not work automatically. It should be prompted, because it is duty-in-care!
You say you find it hard to love people. That’s not uncommon to mankind. But you don't simply let it end there. You make an effort. Any time you work hard at loving someone, you are planting everlasting seeds that will germinate into a bountiful harvest for you and posterity. Today, determine to show somebody you care, especially the one that least expects it!
The Lawless Extinguisher
There is a correlation between law and love. Those who love order and justice will keep the law. Keeping the law has benefits. In societies where law is held in contempt, there is also anarchy and disruption. Citizens of lawless countries live in fear. People cannot plan and see their dreams come to pass. There is constant fear that something awful might happen. But where there is respect for law order looms large, and citizens are free to exercise their rights. Plans are implemented and dreams come true. Indeed, crowns await those who know how to love.