“Leadership and Empowerment”

Alito B. Delos Santos

One of the skills our students need to imbibe is leadership. A teacher of

mine in the seminary, Gene Ahner opines that leadership begins with the
question of one’s own identity—what’s “important to me, what matters, where do
I stand as a person, what do I really care about, what do I value.” According to
him, an individual who fails to appreciate about these things in his/her life will
less likely become a good leader. How can a person lead other people if he
cannot lead one individual—himself?

As in business schools where future CEOs are schooled and nurtured, it is

imperative that we, implementers of the K-12 program should consciously
develop critical thinking, sound intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and good
leadership among our students. While this challenge is usually accepted by us as
teachers, we know that accomplishing this task necessitates a firmer resolve—a
deeper commitment.

We have to accept that most of our students nowadays are basically

“drifters”—very immature and have very little freedom—owing to the fact that
many of them are becoming slaves of new technologies and the internet. If we
can only create and maintain an environment where they can experience
genuine freedom and practice making decisions of their own while accepting
even the most dreaded of consequences, surely they will no longer be at the
mercy of the decision or “will” of other people, customs, structures, systems or of
machines.

Leading one’s life however is not an easy task. It involves many painful
events and a lot of farewells. However, I think that a good leader—the one who is
able to lead his/her own life is most willing to make such sacrifices. Certainly, we
pay a big price in the search of our most authentic self. We may find out along
our way that we are called or destined for something else other than what we are
now and that we need to change.

In our world today where many people are being “marginalized,”

“destituted” or “muted,” there is a huge demand for leaders who can help these
people empower themselves. If these people, whose self-esteem is very low, will
begin to appreciate themselves—their own talents, capacities, and beauty as
human persons—perhaps the world will be greatly transformed for the better.
Good leaders thus beget other good leaders.

We really need good leaders in society today, leaders who are really
concerned of the welfare of their neighbors especially the poor materially and in
other aspects. We need leaders who can sacrifice some of their “wants” (in the
guise of “self-actualization) so that, as Kathy Kelly (one of the advocates for
peace and justice in the US) says, “others can simply live.”