Your own personality is the one big thing for you. Learn to appreciate its strong points and its weak ones, its possibilities for doing the right thing and the wrong, and its probable effect on others. Get it well in hand through practicing self-control, and make it work intelligently in accordance with your wishes. You will make mistakes—the best men do. The point is to have sense enough to recognize the mistake, to correct it and try to avoid repeating it. You watch yourself and you watch others, asking in each case if the best thing was done to get the desired result. There is generally one best thing to say or do, and at least a dozen wrong ones. The chances are largely in favor of using the wrong one, but by giving it thought you learn to pick the right until in the end it becomes quite instinctive for you to do so. We can sum it all up in just about this: that you begin to think seriously about yourself in your job, and determine that you are going to be natural, genuine, fair and self-controlled; that you realize that your instruments are human beings and that you have got to control them through your own personality; and that therefore you determine to study your personality and your tools so you may use them intelligently. Observation and personal application of its results are the great things.
No two leaders may act exactly alike, for each must use his own personality. One may be naturally cold, short-spoken and stern, the other suave and gentle, yet both be equally good leaders. But when you analyze their treatment of their men you will find that both observe the same fundamental principles of justice, fairness and regard for their individual development.
And as the personalities of leaders must differ, so even more will those of the men. To control them you must have a working knowledge of human nature—for while all mankind respond more or less alike to well-known instincts and habits, there are times when you have to consider the individual. Here is where observation, experience and thinking about it prepare you to act intelligently. As a good horseman soon comes to handle a thoroughbred or a cold blood with equal assurance and success, so the leader of men gets to know instinctively what touch to give the reins or spurs in order to get the result he wants. And if in any given case you are not sure what to do, think what would make you respond cheerfully if you were in his place, and what would make you "buck." Let this decide what you will do. It will generally be the right thing, for at bottom we are all pretty much the same.
Above all you must be genuine. You must use the personality God gave you—only use it naturally and with earnest purpose to play the game fairly. If by nature you are gentle and tactful, thank God, and do not try to be a bear, because you have seen and admired some big burly man who was a successful leader. The genuineness and earnestness of your personal efforts to do the right thing will go further than the best possible imitation of some other, be he ever so good.
Self-Control.—You are probably shrinking from the thought of taking yourself in hand in preparation for leadership. But it is quite natural that you should thus train yourselves, for self-control is the one first step toward ability to control others. And you will the more eagerly accomplish your own self-discipline, as you observe human nature and note the blessings of the man who is self-disciplined and the curse both to himself and his fellows of the man who is not. Those parents who allow a child to grow up to manhood undisciplined put a great burden upon the community in which he is to move, and above all a great handicap upon the man himself. Selfish, petulant, flaming into passion at any opposition, egoism coloring everything in life for him, he is a poor member of the team in sport or business, and is more often tolerated by his fellows than heartily welcomed. He has many hard lessons to learn before he comes to appreciate true values in the life about him, and thus become a truly worth-while member of society. Far from being fit to lead others, he is generally the most difficult problem for the leader, who now has to do the work that the parents should have done in the man's childhood.
You may assume that you have the requisite native character for leadership, or you would not be in position to use it. It remains for you to prove its worth and improve its natural qualities. You will not do this by any grandstand plays, or even by prayer. You will do it by continued thoughtfulness in meeting the human problems of your position, and by a discipline of self which will make and keep you fit for your duties.
Consideration for Rights of Others.—It is a good thing for any citizen to make himself realize that he is part of a community whose members are entitled to some consideration as well as himself. This certainly is important for the man who is responsible for the conduct of others. Everyone hates a hog as a candidate for fellowship in sport, business or community living. You see him elbowing women and old men aside as he crowds himself to the front at a ticket window; and so through a busy day always jamming and trampling others to get the best for himself. He gains a questionable satisfaction for his swollen ego, but at the cost of the scorn of his fellows who have thought enough about life to realize that his type is a curse to community living and far from desirable as a characteristic of the race.
Put Yourself in His Place.—If you want to put something over with a man you may take an ax or a hammer and drive it into him—in which case you leave him sore and rebellious—or by putting yourself mentally in his place you may so express yourself as to win his cheerful acquiescence—even if, as may often happen, he does not end by thinking he originated the idea himself. The latter method is called being tactful—and compared to the former gets tenfold results, not to mention adding to the joy of life for all concerned. In presenting an idea by this method you give your attention to the form and manner in which you present it, rather than concentrate all your thought on the idea alone, let him take it as he will. It requires only a bit of consideration of what are the probable feelings and thoughts of the other, a realization of his point of view and how you would feel in his place. The leader who has won his promotion from below has an advantage in having experienced the point of view of his men. Yet he often throws it away and exhibits a case of swollen head by bellowing his "Hey you!" in absolute disregard of the outraged feelings which he must know this always engenders.
It is so much more efficient to be reasonably tactful—to be considerate. To do it one may sacrifice a bit of vainglory, may not appear to himself and his fellows as such a lord of creation, but he will get better results, make life more worth living for all, and win for himself a place in the estimation of others which may well return him tenfold of advantage in some future contingency. It is never the really big man whose arrogance hurts the feelings of the less fortunate or forbids him to show respect and consideration to each man who does well his appointed task in no matter what capacity. This arrogance is found rather in the toad who is trying to make others think he is an ox—and the humbler a man's station the more likely he is to recognize a toad when he meets one, and the more pain it causes him to have to bow to its bovine pretensions.
Loyalty and Initiative.—We have seen how the leader is responsible for developing these qualities in his subordinates. He wins their loyalty to him by gaining their admiration of the personal qualities he displays; and their loyalty to the larger organization and the cause, by his own example and by timely comments. He develops their intelligent initiative by the policy and methods he employs in handling them in their work. He constantly encourages individual effort, taking pains to commend every display of interest, inventiveness, ingenuity, or improvement. He keeps the group informed of what it is trying to do as a whole, so each may understand the object of his particular part and seek opportunity to do it better. He tells the man what to do, not how to do it, and praises whatever shows original effort and decision. By constructive criticism and explanation he encourages the man so that he wants to do it better next time. In short he encourages his men to observe, to think, to decide, and to act on their decisions. So long as their spirit is loyal, the best results come from such service, and he must be patient in developing these faculties.