During the interview with my Platoon Commander, or PC for short, one question he asked me was this: What is the best way to lead? It struck me for a while, and i perused over the virtual image of his sentence in my mind. Thankfully, instead of floundering, i soon found myself with a response that, though probably prone to attacks and rebuttals, i am convicted to stand by. i gave him a parallelism with Medicine, and presented him with a scenario of a patient coming in with various symptoms. Approaching several doctors, the patient finds that different doctors have distinct approaches, and on several occasions even varying diagnoses are made. This is puzzling, and absolutely profound, because different doctors are saying different things and instead of getting a concrete answer, and the patient finds himself getting nowhere and trapped in a web of ever-increasing questions. But this points to a fundamental problem that lies in each and every one of us - anything pertaining to human factors is, inevitably, subject complications and imperfection. Likewise, leadership offers no one-dimensional approaches or textbook methods which we can follow. There's no definite equation which we can use to produce ideal cause and effects. Inherently, we are all different. And different leadership styles suit different crowds of people. So i told my PC that i'm unsure of what exactly is the best way to lead.
So what is the style i'd adopt then, should i get into command school (or even if i don't, i don't need to be a commander to be a leader anyhow)? The answer i gave him was that Christ, to me, is the epitome of what a leader should be. Christ, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8). Christ, a rightful King, did not come to be served but to serve, and lowered himself - even washing his disciples feet. And we are called to imitate Christ - a servant leader. Though arguably, in the world, this style may not work for many, but nevertheless it'll be the style i'd adopt. To lead by example; to serve and not to be served. And this concludes the answer i gave him, and also myself.
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Last night, during the walk back to the car after dinner, my grandfather placed his hand on my shoulder as he slowly and mechanically, hobbled along next to me. He asked me a series of questions that were, if i could put it in words, tautly haunting. How am i going to live now that i'm one-eye-blind? What if the other eye goes blind? i cannot be independent anymore but, on the contrary, i'll be dependent; a burden to those around me. How, dom?
His seriousness at that moment troubled me deeply. But it also reminded me of something i read from the novel which this blog is titled after by Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland. Blindness can be caused by many things and, in my grandfather's example more specifically, it's caused by delayed treatment of retina detachment. Similarly, other examples of our organs failing are cardiac arrest due to heart failure, liver failure, kidney failure, et cetera, of which many are life threatening and often fatal. But all these are part and parcel of growing old. Like the tyres of a car that wear off after long distances, our teeth similarly undergo wear and tear and drop off as we grow older. Our vital organs are the same - these failures are but manifestations of our cells undergoing wear and tear, and losing the ability to function as well as they did during our younger days. Thus, such problems are unavoidable, and are inexorable signs of old age. Thus, instead of what ifs and fear, we ought to embrace this very human virtue of ourselves. We humans are all social beings, and we rely on one another to survive. Hence, let us rid ourselves of the fear of burdening another being - we are/were/have been/will be dependent on someone else in some point of our lives, and there's no need to be ashamed of that. So what if blindness comes? We can still rejoice in the fact that smell, hearing, touch, taste, the ability to walk, breathe and talk, among many other things, still exist. And we can still rejoice in the fact that we're blessed with the privilege of family to support us through trying times. My answers left him speechless, perhaps even deluging him with thoughts and emotions, but it seemed to take away the aura of dread that shrouded him earlier that night.
Hopefully, my thoughts serve to encourage him in his current predicament. i can only cross my fingers and pray.
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