Servant leadership vital to steer nation and fight corruption

For centuries, much ink was spilled in the quest to find characteristics of a true leader. Some people say a leader possesses extraordinary skills of rhetoric, in order to sway and convince people to follow him. Yet, a very early leader - the biblical Moses - could barely speak in public and needed his brother to make every announcement for him. Despite this, he still led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt and into the promised land of Canaan.

Other thinkers believe a leader must be courageous to lead his people to greatness. It helps, on the one hand, to have success due to courageous behaviour. But on the other hand, it often leads to destruction and catastrophe, because the idealisation of courage can prevent the leader from objectively calculating risks of a certain action. Consider one of the most courageous Africans of the antiquity, Hannibal of Carthage. He waged war on Rome and led his elephants all the way through Europe into what is today Italy. Unfortunately, he was defeated, and consequently Rome subjugated Carthage for hundreds of years.