Mandela Philip Thomas
True leadership isn’t about the roar of a lion or the power of a position; it’s the quiet, steady burn of a candle, sacrificing itself to light the path for all. ~ Mandela Philip Thomas
When I was born, we were told to lead like a lion, but over years of understanding the world, I realized the true characteristics and nature of a leader are not to lead like a lion, but like a candle.
A candle burns itself to give light, future, and meaning to everyone. It doesn’t use strength to defeat others; rather, it empowers people to become their own future.
To lead beyond time and to solve the intergenerational imperatives we face across different domains of life and work, we must understand what light is needed to shine brighter into darkness.
True leadership is not strength but influence, understanding, and wisdom. The practical aspect of a candle is that it doesn’t use strength to influence; it uses its value and the meaning within those values to give hope and a future to everyone in the room. That is why no one runs from a candle when its light shines, but everyone runs from a lion when it shows up. This convinces me that the lion is not a leader as we think it is.
It is this format that many leaders around the world rule and lead with, rather than serving to enlighten their people.
On the continent of Africa, where I was born, and other continents I have lived around the world, I have seen where leaders make their citizens less powerful while the government becomes the overseeing power in what they claim to be a free society.
When the principle of leadership is built on leading like a lion, we make the very same people we are meant to serve become our enemies and slaves to our policies, both organizational, national and foreign, in different forms.
This includes enslaving other generations into poverty by plundering their resources, rigging elections to install corrupt officials for our own interests, and using “free speech” to destroy other nations and our own society, rather than for discussing national, or organizational or global matters. It’s used as a tool for suppressing those we seek to change, employing unfair trade practices that fit our agenda rather than global agendas, and supporting terrorists in destabilizing a region from economic prosperity.
I question every leadership book, speech, forum, conference, and event. Some are interesting to read but not accurate enough to define tomorrow’s changing world. It wasn’t until I sat in a leadership position that I found what true leadership was about.
Every single person who had the chance to work with me found meaning, light, and a future to lead towards, because I burned the light to give everyone meaning to define each day.
This is what true leadership is, and the candle defines it. This is the characteristic upon which I built my foundation to serve, lead, and manage the imperatives of generations across the globe. It’s tough when we are lost, but easy when we are found. It’s within our founding principles that we develop the future of belonging and leadership.
A lion leads by fear, consuming all its surveys. A true leader, like a candle, consumes only itself to light up the path for others, proving that influence born of sacrifice shines brighter than any show of strength.
