12 MAGAZINE your projects, understand the path forward, and push diligently toward the destination. Skillful leaders are able to make ideas into reality. Making progress together requires a common foundation on which to stand. The leader steers, proposes, suggests, and builds based on this shared conviction. Leadership is convincing those around you of your ideals, on a scale both large and small. All of this is regardless of whether these ideas are costly, unpopular, misunderstood, or any number of other difficulties. For this reason, leadership is distinct from populism, though the two are often confused. Populist leaders are not leaders, but are, in fact, populists. Leadership is setting an example. Leadership is honesty with oneself as much as others. No one can uphold hierarchical power or authority without the credibility afforded by exemplary behavior. Leadership is compromise, involving a constant search for agreement, constructive consensus and finding common ground. Skillful leaders have honest conversations about the nature of the future, of the world’s multilateralism. Skillful leaders understand that peace is the only way forward and are ready to tackle an ever-expanding international agenda concerning all life on the planet. Leadership is responsibility. Skillful leaders prioritize the company’s goals over simple profit. Skillful leaders care more about the common interests of stakeholders than the financial ones. Responsibility is considering others, overcoming sectarianism, and seeing oneself as an integral part of the common good, not just the interests of one’s peers. Compounding all of this, all the aspects of leadership shift during a crisis such as this pandemic. Despite this complicating factor, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has shown exemplary leadership skills despite her country’s highly complex political situation. Conversely, the United States’ standing and credibility as a world leader plummeted due to President Donald Trump renouncing his country’s allies worldwide. French President Emmanuel Macron and Merkel have carried out an extraordinarily successful crisis recovery plan, setting the standard for European pandemic response. At present, Latin America lacks leaders with the prowess to tackle this pandemic’s serious socioeconomic consequences. The majority of advice in leadership manuals does not effectively forge great leaders. It engenders leaders of paltry spaces, often egotistical and ineffective at addressing real issues. Today, after COVID, the standards have changed. People demand leaders who build and agree, not leaders who destroy through conflict. Society demands better public services, a cause which will require solidarity. To overcome this crisis, collective fiscal efforts will be necessary. Companies will need to make the best use of European financial stimulus, which will require fostering governmental relations. A high degree of responsibility, both individual and collective, will be necessary from everyone, across all walks of life. To overcome future challenges, Spain must return to being the country that some called the “Germany of the South.” Leadership at all levels, both private and public, is and will continue to be essential. Leadership must be solid, exemplary, responsible, committed, and, above all, sustainable. Leadership is responsibility. Skillful leaders prioritize the company’s goals over simple profit. Skillful leaders care more about the common interests of stakeholders than the financial ones