Indispensable Traits for Leadership

Ikeda: … “What traits do you see as essential qualifications for leadership?”

Yalman: This is an important issue. People in both the East and the West are deeply disappointed in world leaders for having allowed – indeed, encouraged – festering troubles to slide into terror, war and chaos. Very few current politicians have a grand vision. Creative people are in demand, as are people with the universal spirit of brotherly love who understand the desire for peace and can direct people towards its attainment. In addition, surely the high moral qualities espoused by many religions are also indispensable in a leader. Gandhi, who gave up his life in pursuit of peace, used to say that we must cling to truth (satyagraha). Ends do not justify means: the nature of the means employed determines the nature of their end result.

Ikeda: … Any high-placed person too absorbed in worldly success and economic stability to exert the greatest efforts for the sake of ordinary people is unqualified to be a leader. The source of creativity, action and vision is surely compassion and eager devotion to the common good. (p31)

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Ikeda:… Another Turkish proverb has to do with the way decadent leaders destroy the organizations they lead: ‘Fish rot from the head first.’ In other words, rulers of states and organizations are the first to go bad. (p25)

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Ikeda (paraphrased): In King Ashoka’s time – as, sadly, in our own – war as a way to solve problems was generally accepted. It is absolutely vital for the leaders of our world today to recognize, as King Ashoka did after he converted to Buddhism, that far from solving problems, force only creates many new ones. And just like Ashoka, they must courageously draw attention to this. (p17)

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Ikeda (paraphrased): Learning from President Atatürk’s wisdom, leaders must long to enlighten the people they lead. They must base everything on the needs of the people and impart to them great self-confidence. (p35)

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Ikeda: Your definition of cultural anthropology as an ‘attempt to understand other people’ is lucid and universally applicable…

Yalman: Yes, leaders today must have the inventiveness to learn lessons from cultural anthropology. (p73)

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Yalman (paraphrased): Great Leaders do not divide people but bring them together.(p114)

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Ikeda: “Most regrettably and perilously, frequent reports of tragedies caused by religious conflicts are beginning to make some people think that different religions cannot coexist peacefully…”

Yalman (paraphrased): In this regard, it is the sentiment of empathy, the feeling of kinship with others, which must be cultivated. These are the qualities that make us more human. These qualities are cultivated through dialogue because dialogue reveals that humanism is universally pulsating across all cultures… the challenge and responsibility expected of leaders is to take on the proud mission of enlightening others about this deeper (universally present) humanism. (p116)

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Ikeda (paraphrased): The primary aim of both Soka University of America and Japan is education that fosters popular leaders who can contribute to world peace and the happiness of humanity instead of exclusively concentrating on the political and economic dimensions. (p121)

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Yalman (paraphrased): Genuine leaders are those who have learned the lessons of two world wars that took untold numbers of precious lives. We do not leaders who initiate conflicts (such as in Vietnam, Algeria and the middle east) “in the name of national interests for the narrow personal gains of small coteries in control of state military apparatuses. Even President Eisenhower was aware of their power and cautioned against the dangers of the military-industrial complex.” (p122)

(Page references are to the Yalman-Ikeda Dialogue: A Passage To Peace)