X : What do you think the most important characteristics of leadership are? Strategy? Culture? Structure? Vision?
Me : None of the above. The most important characteristic is also the most difficult to do and to understand - servitude to the collective ...

... the purpose of leadership is to enable others to serve the goals and values of the collective. It's not about you or your ego or being the "top dog", it's about helping that path - to survival, to growth - emerge in your collective whether nation, organisation or other.

The weak leader thinks it's about them - their vision, their culture, their strategy, their structure, their power ... but you are nothing without the collective and that's where you must start. The first lesson of leadership is always to realise that you are nothing.

That does not mean you cannot influence ... of course you can but you use that influence to direct the collective in a path that serves the collective. As leader you are the ultimate servant of the collective. Most collectives disintegrate or fail because leaders forget this ...

... two of the finest examples of leadership are Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II. There is a strong ethic of duty, of care for the collective that exists throughout. Some of the worst examples in history can unfortunately be found in our political leadership ...

... as for the cause, maybe there is a difference between being born to duty (the royal family) and the act of seeking power (even through elections) and a belief that somehow "you" can make the difference. It's why I would rather see the second chamber changed to sortition ...

... a process of random selection, not only for reasons of diversity but to re-emphasise that duty. Under sortition, you are selected by random to serve (it's not about you) rather than "you" were chosen for whatever reason.

Often, I hear people talk about the humble leader. But humility isn't giving the occassional nice word to staff on a job well done or trying not to take credit for things or trying to be more "emotionally intelligent" ... it's about realising that you are the servant ...

... the phrases "it was the execution not the strategy that failed" to "we need to make the hard decisions in letting these people go" are all examples of weak leadership, of failure because the answers were there in the collective if only you had dutifuly served it.

So, when you look at that doctrine table, those universally useful principles of operating then realise that when you get to "be humble" (phase III) then you have everything you need and are now ready to be a leader. The choice of whether you follow that path is always yours.

Be warned, if you fail to follow that path then you will never truly listen to your ecosystem as you will just use it to reinforce your own views. You will never truly understand the varied cultures that you require instead trying to impose your own. All that follows requires it.