How Not to Lead People

July 31, 1949

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Like most stories that are old, this one has been told with many variations at successive seasons: It is the story of the man who was frantically following a crowd that had moved far ahead of him. Panting and pleading in his effort to overtake them, he cried: “Tell them to wait for me. I am their leader!” There is another version of this same idea that comes as questionable advice to those who would be leaders: “find out where they are going, and then get in front of them.” These two citations suggest two ways (not recommended) of “leading” people: (1) ask them to wait while you catch up with them, (2) find out where the crowd is going, and then get in front of them. There may be many reasons for this kind of “leadership.” One is that it is often easier; another, that it is often more popular (to begin with, at least) to give people what they think they want whether it is good for them or not⎯to lead them whither they will. Trying to lead the world, or any part of it, to places they ought to want to go but don’t want to go, may be difficult to do. To lead a child, to lead a boy, to lead a crowd (especially of young people), to lead anyone, we must be ahead of them in our thinking and not ask them to wait for us. We must help them to want to go where they ought to go. We must anticipate their actions and provide for their activities⎯ for no generation of youth are going to wait for their elders to catch up with them. Either we are ahead of them or we are hopelessly behind. And the way not to lead people, of any age, is to run breathlessly behind, shouting, “Wait for me. I am your leader!”

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