Leaders, Do We Need Them

You've probably heard it often enough through your life such remarks as: "What we need is someone who is a leader," "Our program builds leadership," and "He was a great leader." I suppose for people who are not self starters or who cannot operate effectively unless told exactly what to do or are too lazy to put effort into making decisions, a leader is a necessity. But think about it, for most things, the majority of people get along pretty damn well in their daily lives without being told what to do. When organizing a group effort, most of the time people can reach a consensus fairly rapidly.

It seems to me that people who strive for leadership roles are egoists who think that they know better than other people how to run things. There is also the motive of having power over others. In addition, in most societies, leaders are honored and rewarded.

In my view so-called "leaders" do more harm than good. The stronger the leader, the more arbitrary and dictatorial are his or her decisions. Think about some people who were considered great leaders, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ghenghis Khan, Julius Caesar. It is power hungry leaders and their sheeplike followers who make war, order genocide, and oppress people.

Of course many organizations in a modern society are organized hierarchically. I believe this stems from the olden days when emperors, kings and religious leaders who organized according to a military standard. In a hierarchical organization power starts from the top and propagates downward. This gave the power hungry the ability to lord over others. In today's world, this also holds true, although in democratic countries such as our, the leader's drive for absolute power is somewhat tempered by other forces.

But the truth is that most organizations would probably run as smoothly without a leader. It is the much maligned bureaucracy who keep the organization going. When important decisions had to be made, they could be made by experts after due consideration, perhaps in committee.