~ excerpt from an essay by Enrique E. Fabbri, originally published in Argentine magazine Criterio.

‘A lot is written today about leadership, yet most of these works do not propose or indicate which are the qualities of a true leader. There is a lot of falseness and shallowness in this field. The fabric of many large companies lacks an effective and human guidance as well as personal and trustworthy one. They lack a more visionary leadership inspired in those men and women capable of teaching, conducting, training and assessing all kinds of corporations, official or private ones, national or multi-national.

The true leader is someone who is always honest and has the capability of understanding the common good and of promoting it. Moreover, he understands the others and stimulates them to give their best in order to achieve this goal.

The key solution must be sought in this dilemma: businesses don’t have a conscience, men do. Organizations don’t love, only humans do. Leadership is a personal option, but it takes training to get there. And the question remains in the air: can a person be a genuine leader when there is no honesty in the mind and the heart? The point is to be able to guide without dominating, misleading or seducing. From this point of view, those who lead the masses through lying, cheating and pressing, not for the benefit of the people but for the achievement of their own inhuman interest in power and money aren’t true leaders, only pseudo-leaders. The true leader respects the freedom of others and gives them the means and the drive for them to carry out and continue a task that is committed to the common good.’

Read the entire essay, in translation.