The Almighty Formula for Effective Leadership

"Power tends corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men…”
These were the wise words of Lord John Dalberg-Acton. With the above in mind, you will agree with me that any person in a leadership position will be bestowed with power to a certain degree. When this happens, must the leader permit the above assertion to come true in his life
We define power as the ability to command obedience coercively or peacefully. But for true leadership, commanding obedience through coercive means is totally frowned at making the ultimate equation for leadership as follows:
POWER + ACCEPTANCE = LEGITIMACY
But most of the times , it is very difficult or almost impossible for all the follower to accept a particular leader at the same time. So how can a leader use his power to bring about legitimacy from his followers? To answer this question, the following guidelines can be very helpful:
• Resist the Corruption Tendency Associated with Power Acquisition:
whether you are a religious, a political or even a traditional leader. In any leadership capacity you find yourself, resist the temptation to abuse the power vested on you. Power abuse may come inform of nepotism, favoritism and other form of corrupt practices. To be an outstanding leader, you must learn to resist these corrupt practices.
• Channel your power towards good practices: a leader should imbibe good values such as justice, fairness, honest etc. With these practices, there will be no need to use coercive means to compel obedience as the followers will be so happy with such a leader and hence will accept his leadership leading to legitimacy.
• Everyone should be made to feel relevant:
as a leader , it is important to carry everyone along especially in matters concerning the welfare of everyone. Insubordination may arise from the followers if a leader tend make decisions without seeking the consent of his followers which will definitely reduce the level of legitimacy and hence effective leadership.
In conclusion, if a leader is able to commit the following to heart and try to cement his leadership role with them in mind, he will achieve effective leadership as well as effective representation of his followers.