Intellectual Leaders - How Will They Help?

Creating academically sophisticated, intellectual leaders may help prevent people from taking advantage of others in several different ways; first, intellectual leaders will not only rely on their authority and power, but will have true leadership skills, which will lead them to benefit the entire society, as opposed to only benefitting themselves. “Leadership is the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers.” (Gardner) According to this definition, we can see that a leader has not only influence on his or her actions, but also plays a very influential role in the lives of his or her followers, having a great effect on the society in which one lives. This is something a lot of people do not consider about when thinking about leadership – they instead focus on their power and authority, as represented by the image below. 

With intellectual, academically sophisticated leaders, a noticeably stronger democratic society would be built, for the people would be a lot more engaged in the decisions being made for the community, wanting to assist and make a difference for the better of the society as a whole. The individuals in the community would not only be concerned with their well being, but would want to create a system in which the entire society is able to benefit from. Rather than being persuaded into political arguments without properly being able to fathom them, people would be engaged and aware of their government’s actions and decisions, hence constructing a sophisticated and stronger democratic society.