Like good teachers. great leaders should be noble, selfless, generous, highly ethical, and concerned more for the helping the people become themselves more noble, selfless, highly ethical, and generous. Perhaps there are many great leaders in many different countries. Often, such leaders give tirelessly of their own energies to improve the lives of others and to lift the moral character of those whom they serve. Great leaders do great things for humanity. Great leadership doesn't occur just for a brief period, but over a long term. We can find great leaders in the fields of morality, education, politics, economics, the arts, and sports, among others.
On an international scale, I see several great leaders who are presently living. These include UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (2001 Nobel Prize Laureate for Peace), the former President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa (both Nobel Peace Laureates), and Pope John Paul II for his moral leadership. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has the potential for demonstrating great leadership. Queen Elizabeth II, who has served as a continuing symbolic linkage of continuity for the British people and others in the British Commonwealth throughout the world for five decades, has demonstrated great leadership. Vavlof Havel, President of the Czech Republic, has exerted great moral leadership over a long period of time.
In the United States, former President Bill Clinton had the potential for becoming a great leader, but because of the various sexual crises and the ensuing legal and possible impeachment battles that surrounded his Presidency, this opportunity appears to have passed. Former President Jimmy Carter has certainly shown much greater international leadership as a past President than he was able to do as President. Had Colin Powel! become President, he might have had the possibility for great leadership. Presently, however, he remains in the shadow of the Bush administration as Secretary of State, and his leadership is not based on his original initiative, but must follow the decisions of the Bush administration. Former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright demonstrated many examples of a potential great leader as an international diplomat. Father Theodore Hesburgh, former President of Notre Dame University in Indiana t has illustrated many qualities as a great leader, both as a university president, and in service to the nation. Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Greenspan has demonstrated great leadership in monetary policies both through Democrat and Republican presidencies.
In the past, early in my professional career, and toward its end, I have attempted to exercise creative leadership in the field of intercultural communication. This was done through helping to found this academic field in the 1970's by chairing national and international conferences and my books. Then more recently through my own authored and edited hooks, by hosting six international conference since 1995, and by serving as a series editor for more than ten books in my series, "Civic Discourse for the Third Millennium" I have attempted to exert leadership in my own academic discipline and beyond. As I noted above, such leadership is not a short time exercise, but a long term and dedicated involvement in leadership.