Leadership is often about raising the aspirations of followers and enthusing people with a desire to reach for the stars

Ravi Subramanian has a nice piece on students and teachers relations on values. A bit from that article:

• Those who have sch­ool-going children wi­ll relate to what I am going to write. I was having a discussion with my daughter Anusha about her sc­hool when she turned ar­ound and said, “In the afternoon, there are a lot of people waiting outside my school. All of them come to pick up their childrens and hold up traffic outside the school.”
• Even in companies, it is often seen that leaders who instill this sense of trust, often manage to build a team of a hi­gh-performing, constantly mo­tivated team. These team me­mbers often stick to the same leader and help him deliver on the expectations that the organisation has on him, even in times of extreme crisis.
• Leadership is often about raising the aspirations of followers and enthusing people with a desire to reach for the stars. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi created a vision for independence in India and raised the aspirations of our people. People followed him the same way that Anusha followed her teacher. Everything that Gandhi uttered was go­spel truth. He built that faith in his followers, by adopting a selfless approach to what he was doing.
• This faith takes time to build up. Even a single act of indiscretion, a single instance of selfishness can shatter the faith that everyone has in the leader. When you look back at leaders in our corporate world, good leaders are often defined by how a leader stands up for his people in times of adversity. How he ba­cks them when they are in trouble? How he steps up his engagement with them in ti­mes of crisis. In the words of Seneca, the Greek philosopher, “Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.” Isn’t all this what a good teacher does with your child in school.