Leadership
The Next Great Profession
Author:
Richard B. Brooke
First
it was a farmer. Then it was accountants and engineers. Then
it was doctors and teachers. And for a while it was the MBA.
Now it is lawyers. (There are more lawyers in law school in
the United States than there are lawyers in the rest of the
world.) Throughout the short history of our country, certain
professions have been held in the highest regard and pursued
as the Holy Grail of careers. Each had its own contribution
to moving our society forward.
The
contribution of farming and engineering in crafting this great
country is clear. And certainly accountants, doctors and MBAs
have created their own breakthroughs in modern day living. And
yet as we look at the state of business, politics, and education
even sports and religion there is one huge missing. A missing
that is the source of the parts of our society for which we
are ashamed.
Business.
It used to be that the biggest failure of business was its disregard
for the environment or its workers. Today, it has expanded to
the public at large, and especially the investors. There seems
to be no bounds over which business will cross for profits especially
personal profits for the top executives.
Education.
Certainly we have the best system for the elite. Yet something
is missing if most high school graduates are not able to read
or write at an acceptable enough level to be employed by a responsible
business. (I know this from the hundreds of people we have interviewed
for our businesses that lack the most basic skills).
Religion.
Some of our biggest scandals continue to come from organized
religion.
Sports.
Our national pastimewhere we have made winning so important
that we will tolerate cheating, drugging and all-out riots.
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Politics.
Suffice to ask: In the last presidential election, how did you
feel about the two candidate choices we had to lead the most
important country in the world? Did you feel like we had our
best feet forward, or were they in someones mouths?
Enough
cynicism. What is missing?
Leadership
is missing. A new paradigm that is born in service, contribution,
courage, independence, authenticity, listening, compassion,
stewardship and love. One that is based in high self-esteem,
not arrogance; that practices integrity, not popularity; that
just plain does the right thing for all involved.
We
need leadership that goes beyond being just an academic concept
and, instead, becomes the next Great Profession. Imagine your
children pursuing a career in it. A career wherein they learn
to embody the values and arts of listening, empowerment of others,
stewardship and service, integrity (walking their talk), truth
telling and being a card-carrying visionary.
Leadership
is the most important profession. It is the only profession
that can lead society to change. Change our values. Change our
priorities. Change our tolerances. Change our minds. Change
our hearts. It makes us or breaks us, yet as a society we do
not even see it as a profession.
Just
as we have seen in our lifetimes the significance of the family
farmer/rancher lose footing, we will also see other industry-based
professions fade away. We have invited more technological advances
into our lives in the past 50 years than in the entire history
of mankind. There is only one profession that can be mandatory
in this ever-changing world.
Leaders
will be seen more and more as the solvers of the problems of
business, religion, politics and education. Not lawyers, not
accountants, not even teachers or doctors. Leaders will be the
only professionals that can transcend any industry or any art
and organization and lead it to solve its problems problems
brought on by being run by something other than leadership.
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Professional
leaders will be the most sought after, highest paid, most respected,
most trusted, and most admired profession of the 21st century.
Get ahead of the curve. Encourage your children to study it,
practice it and pursue mastery in it.
Leadership
is simply the art of influencing people to move in a direction
on their own initiative they would not normally move. Those
of us involved in Network Marketing have an extraordinary opportunity
to practice this art. Few industries require such skills in
vision, motivation, listening, empowerment, service, courage
and accomplishment.
We
are in the profession of herding cats, if you will. Anyone that
can attract, organize and motivate a group of MLM volunteers
can move mountains in traditional business and other organizations.
Our countrys future leaders could, and very well should, come
from those who embraced leadership as their profession because
in their pursuit of building their very own MLM empire, they
had to. Leadership in our business is everything.
Copyright
2005 by High Performance People, L.L.C.
Used
with permission.
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Author:
Richard B. Brooke
www.richardbrooke.com
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