The worst part of being President of the United States is visiting hospitals. What is President Obama supposed to say to a paralyzed infrantryman's pregnant wife? The President's advisors told him he shouldn't visit hospitals because it would misalign the President's priorities. The Commander-in-Chief disagreed.
Leadership isn't about titles. It's not about management. It's not about authority or power. Those things are ancillary. Being a leader means taking responsibility for something beyond yourself.
The Boy Scouts of America is a youth leadership training organization. My troop had about twenty scouts. We elected a Senior Patrol Leader to lead us. The job sucked. No boy ever ran for Senior Patrol Leader again after completing his[1] first term.
Responsibility is non-zero-sum. Suppose the Senior Patrol Leader tells a Patrol Leader to bring firewood and the Patrol Leader tells a Tenderfoot to bring firewood and the Tenderfoot forgets. Who is responsible?
The Senior Patrol Leader, the Patrol Leader and the Tenderfoot are responsible.
When I was in Boy Scouts, I had a reputation for giving away my equipment. Did a scout forget to bring a spatula? He could use mine. What about me? I'd make do with the resources available. I whittled a lot of chopsticks.
My favorite boss was a woman who ran a small business providing entertainment to corporate events and the occasional Bar Mitzvah. Many of us employees didn't have cars. This was before Uber and Lyft but we couldn't have afforded them even if they were available. The parties ended late, long after public transportation stopped running. My boss organized carpools in order to made sure her employees always had a ride home. On the rare occasions carpooling didn't work out, she drove me home herself.
At the time, girls were not allowed in Boy Scouts. ↩︎