A leader is any person who is appointed to be in charge of a body or a group of people and to take care of all their interests in an impartial way. He has to be strong mentally and able to guide his followers to success based on facts and considering the risks involved in making a move towards a specific set of goals. A politician, on the other hand, is a person who leads a group of people with common interests and holds or aspires to hold a position in a government. He has to be elected by the masses and has the obligation to represent their interests in the office that he holds and lead his or her subjects towards a bright future based on their interests. He must have great leadership skills in order to be considered successful.
One of the qualities of a great leader is the ability to be unselfish. A good leader must put the interests of his people first. One of the main challenges that a leader faces is ensuring that he considers the people’s interests above his own ones when making any decision. For instance, he has to award a tender. Some leaders fall into the temptation of awarding tenders to companies in which they have interests and end up paying more than they should at the expense of the organization that they are in charge of. If such a leader went ahead to be a politician in charge of a country, he or she would make inter-governmental deals, for example, import of goods, based on what they will gain on a personal level instead of looking at what the deal will be worth to the country. However, a leader who overcomes such a challenge will definitely make a great politician.
Being impartial is another quality of a good leader. The ability to treat everyone equally will make a difference between a good and a bad leader. Some organization heads will allocate staff to departments based on the ones they favor and not the ones that deserve it. This leads to some overstaffed and understaffed departments of the same organization, which affects the overall performance. An impartial leader will make a great politician, as he will allocate resources to the whole country based on its needs and not on whether the region supported him or her to the office or not. They will also appoint people to government offices based on their performance and not on their political affiliation. This will be to the benefit of the whole country and not just of a particular region.
Good decision making is another aspect of good leadership. Leaders have a responsibility to make decisions on behalf of the people who have appointed them to the position and the interests of the organization. Inability to do this leads to formation of poor policies and guidelines to the detriment of the company. The same case applies to a politician who is the President of a country. His sound decision making will lead to the development of his country politically, socially and economically. On the other hand, poor decision making will result in slow economic development, political instability and other unpleasant consequences.
Another aspect of a good leader is the ability to inspire. Being a leader involves guiding people positively and giving them hope in tough times. The world financial crisis was one of the challenges that called for inspiration of the people by their leaders. Companies were facing losses and had to make tough decisions, for example, budget cuts and staff retrenchment in order to stay afloat. Leaders who managed to inspire their staff through the tough financial times by giving them hope for a brighter future managed to guide their organizations through the crisis and quickly recover after the stabilization of the world economy. Such leaders would make great political heads, as they are able to inspire their countries through various social and economic challenges. These include unemployment, famine, poor housing and social security. We have an example of the current president of the United States of America who provided inspirational leadership through the world financial crisis. This turned out to be one of the reasons the people voted for him at the presidential elections.
Another aspect of a good leader is the ability to inspire. Being a leader involves guiding people positively and giving them hope in tough times. The world financial crisis was one of the challenges that called for inspiration of the people by their leaders. Companies were facing losses and had to make tough decisions, for example, budget cuts and staff retrenchment in order to stay afloat. Leaders who managed to inspire their staff through the tough financial times by giving them hope for a brighter future managed to guide their organizations through the crisis and quickly recover after the stabilization of the world economy. Such leaders would make great political heads, as they are able to inspire their countries through various social and economic challenges. These include unemployment, famine, poor housing and social security. We have an example of the current president of the United States of America who provided…
The four examples above are some of the many pointers to the fact that a good leader will make a great politician. A great leader is a product of good leadership and there is no way we can separate the two of them. A successful politician must have all the qualities of good leader, otherwise his or her government will be lacking in many aspects and this will affect the country’s growth negatively.