Right the wrongs in troubled Judiciary

Everything rises and falls on leadership — is the oft quoted wisdom from the great leadership guru, John Maxwell. A lakeside version says: the fish rots from the head. The import is staggeringly profound. Whenever there is success in the family, organisation, or nation, the leader must be commended and duly crowned — irrespective of whatever factors may have contributed to that success. Some often take offence that they work so hard and yet it is the leader that receives the accolades. Well, that is the glory of leadership. On the flipside though, when there is failure, all fingers are justifiably pointed at the leader; no matter how removed he may have been from the causes of failure. That is the burden of leadership.

What this means is that a person’s privilege of lament ceases upon assuming a leadership role. Henceforth, he or she must bear the demands of leadership unflinchingly like the beast of burden. A father may lament over the terrible family he heads, a CEO about the disorganised entity he presides over, or a president about the overwhelming wickedness in his nation; people will listen, but often with little sympathy. For the sole task of leadership is to transform chaos into order. It is what distinguishes a driver from a passenger. The one is actively engaged in navigation, the other passively engrossed in critique.