Dutchies and leadership

Today’s training about compliance made me think about the Dutch and leadership. I believe leadership is a state of mind, it is hard to define and more about character than skills. Great leaders need skills but skilled people are not always leaders. We are a country with only 16 million people. We believe we can win the Football European Championship despite having to play Italy and France in the first round. We believe the Dutch educational system is the best in the world, despite that none of our universities end up in the top 10. We also believe we produce many great leaders, but do we?

India has Ghandi. South Africa has Mandela. England has Diana. France has Napoleon.
Which great leaders did we produce?

Dutch are socialists and let’s face it mediocre. We do not like people standing out of the crowd. Acting normal is strange enough (as the local saying goes). It is a difficult environment to excel in.

My traineeship is built around leadership development principles. We read Covey for homework. I am fascinated by remarks my colleagues make. I see leadership hidden inside them. But I am not sure they can resist the pitfalls of being mediocre. If we fail, there are x million Chinese or x million Indians just waiting to take over.

I do not know what my conclusion is or what it should be. I guess this story will be continued.