Strange Legacy

The Price of Leadership

Good leaders are haunted people. Anyone who serves in a leadership capacity for an extended period of time, especially one of importance, will make mistakes. These mistakes will often hurt other people. This realization will invariably create a crucible of regret that leaders must bare.

Despite this regret, leaders must not allow the mistakes of the past to paralyze them. They will be periodically confronted with decisions that don’t have a clear answer, but still require a timely choice. But regardless of how good a leader’s intentions may be, being a leader requires that one accept responsibility for the consequences of important decisions.

This isn’t to say leaders need be condemned to perpetual misery. Effective leaders may derive a sense of satisfaction from their good decisions which ultimately outweighs their regret from the bad ones. Nevertheless, it is healthy to occasionally reflect on those mistakes and feel their sting. Such reflection is essential for wisdom – the most important virtue a leader can cultivate.

For those who wish to live an existence of perpetual bliss, leadership is probably not something to which they should aspire. As for leaders who claim to have no regrets whatsoever: they are either supernatural beings unfettered by the burdens of mortal imperfection, or they are very, very dangerous people. Any leader who harbors the capacity for such self-deception should be shunned at any cost.

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