Consider the following comments on leadership.
A leader is best when people barely know he exists.
Lao Tzu
The price of greatness is responsibility.
Winston Churchill
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln
The crowd loves the leader who flatters it and forgets the one who told it the truth.
We demand leaders who are decisive, then condemn them the moment the decision goes wrong.
Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.
A way into this prompt
A defensible thesis is that real leadership is the willingness to bear responsibility for outcomes you cannot fully control, which is precisely why the qualities crowds admire are often the wrong ones. Begin by conceding the heroic view: history clearly turns on individuals whose vision and nerve changed events. Then press the harder point that the most effective leadership is frequently invisible, building systems and consensus so that success looks like it belonged to everyone. A strong third move distinguishes leadership that serves the group from leadership that serves the leader's image, since charisma is as available to the demagogue as to the statesman. Caution: resist the great man narrative that credits one figure with what was really the work of many, while remembering that diffusing all responsibility can be its own way of escaping it.