Timeless Leadership

If we want to work together well with others, we need to acknowledge their dignity as human beings.

Dignity is a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human. When you disregard or even violate the dignity of others, you make them feel like nonentities.

Everyone on your team deserves to be treated with dignity.

Dignity is what connects us.

More: https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/dignity-connects-us

“When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community.” — Montesquieu, 1745

Last week, I wrote about leadership and the concept of noblesse oblige - literally “noble rank entails responsibility.”

A leader’s duty isn’t only to an organization, but to its people as well, as they think beyond themselves and consider the greater good.

Noblesse oblige is an ancient principle infused in leaders and multiple cultural touchpoints throughout history.

It starts with the New Testament of The Bible:
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” — Luke 12:48

It extends to other areas of history as well, such as in Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural address:
“Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as be seen as a people with such responsibilities.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 1905

And most famously in Marvel Comics #1:
“With great power there must also come -- great responsibility.” — Stan Lee, 1962

Each of these expressions carries the same message: there is a moral and ethical responsibility for those with more power to consider those without such privilege.

Powerful leaders have a duty, directed not at their peers and counterparts in the halls of power and entitlement, but toward the less powerful or less fortunate, who are directly affected by the actions these leaders take (or don't take).

We all should use our powers for the good of others.

It is noble. It is right. It is our duty.

More: https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/noblesse-oblige

The concept is neither new nor something born of the chivalric or feudal ages.

Noblesse oblige is an ancient principle infused in leaders and multiple cultural touchpoints throughout history.

Whatever the expression, it carries the same message: there is a moral and ethical responsibility for those with more power to consider those without such privilege.

Theirs is a duty, directed not at their peers and counterparts in the halls of power and entitlement, but toward the less powerful or less fortunate, who benefit from the actions of leaders who care about them. https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/noblesse-oblige?r=bx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Looking at the past, the future seems so certain, doesn’t it?

Our present is the future of generations past.

But for our ancestors, the future was never guaranteed.

When we lead others, we owe them a well-articulated and hopeful vision, with tangible goals that we celebrate along the way.

https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/the-promise-of-tomorrow