11 MAGAZINE Why is it, in a century which has seen such a great wealth of literature on the subject of leadership, that the world has so few skillful leaders? Airport bookshops fill their shelves with manuals for success, most focusing on leadership advice. What these manuals fail to tell you is that the skills needed to manage teams, undertake initiatives, resolve crises, unite desires, persuade others, face enemies, overcome adversity, bring out the best allies, and claim victory only emerge through genuine strength and authentic leadership. There is a Mexican expression loosely translated as “treading water,” which can refer to the opposite of effective leadership. Put another way, ineffective leaders simply “go with the flow,” merely stretching out their arms and floating on the surface of still water. However, today’s waters are being constantly shifted by wind and storms, so such easygoing pleasures are fleeting at best. We live in difficult times. Competition is stiff, markets are alienated, circumstances change at a brutal rate, technological and social changes are far-reaching, and the foundational paradigms of our work and lives have vanished beneath us. As such, the primary requirement for all leadership is knowing and understanding the world in which we live, moving through it as an active participant rather than a spectator. A leader understands that we are seeing the change of an era (not in an era of change), which one could even call the true turn of the century. Leadership is also the ability to understand and share people’s feelings and remain aware of the lives of others. Many different large-scale movements have defined contemporary civilization, but they share one common thread: They all respond to deep-seated, irreversible human desires, such as liberty, justice, dignity, equality, and many more. Those sentiments have not dwindled in the hearts of people today. We all aspire to those ideals and suffer in their absence. Effective leaders must manage the feelings of those around them and constantly work toward those ends. Leadership is decision making. Leadership is knowing that the buck stops at you. There is no one else to call, no one else to consult. Leaders must act of their own volition, often having to choose between imperfect scenarios full of contradictions and risks. Making decisions involves no small amount of calculation and foresight. Skillful leaders intuit the results of their actions, anticipate the reactions of their communities, and have a plan to achieve their goals independent from those reactions. Leadership is persuasion. Leadership is convincing workers to devote themselves to Ramón Jáuregui Chairman, Euroamérica Foundation / Spain Leadership is also the ability to understand and share people’s feelings and remain aware of the lives of others