Leadership is a subject about which much has been said, and it appears we will continue discussing it. In my view, we talk so much about leadership because our expectations of it are high. We are generally dissatisfied with the direction of the world and cannot say that we are happy with what is happening around us. We continually question the choices and actions of those in positions of decision-making, those seeking to govern countries, those already governing, and those leading companies. We even go further and hold them responsible for the situation in which we find ourselves—and we are not entirely wrong. As a result, questions such as how to find and develop the leaders we desire and which qualities they should possess have become important both for researchers and for ordinary individuals.

In this article, I will look at leadership from a different perspective. I will not repeat subjects and information that can easily be found in the literature, nor do I claim to have discovered a formula. As someone who has focused on this subject for a long time and has designed and delivered leadership development programs, I will share an approach I have reached—or at least consider important.

Our approach to the subject is shaped by the answer to “Who is a leader?” or by our definition of leadership. We might say that there are as many definitions of leadership as there are people attempting to define it. Perhaps all these definitions continue to exist because each expresses a certain aspect of leadership and therefore contains some truth. It is possible to take a holistic view, synthesize these perspectives, and create a definition encompassing every dimension. Instead, I will define leadership through the aspect I consider crucial and want to emphasize clearly:

“Leadership is the ability to create an impact, and a leader is a person who creates an impact.”

I am aware that there is nothing mysterious or new in this definition. Nevertheless, I will use it to deepen our examination of the leader and leadership. The Turkish Language Association dictionary defines impact as “the power of a person or object over another person or thing” and “the result of a factor or cause.” As these explanations show, at the heart of leadership lies the power a leader possesses and the ability to use that power to produce results or create change.

If a leader possesses the power to influence but does not use it, no result will be obtained and that power will remain potential. In fact, every living person continuously creates an impact through their behavior, through what they do and/or fail to do. We create an impact when we remove a stone from the road; we also create an impact when we ignore it and walk past. Even now, as you read this article, I am creating an impact on you through my words.

From this perspective, all of us are leaders. I realize that this departs from conventional thinking and places responsibility on everyone. Yes, to repeat: every living person, merely by breathing, creates an impression, an impact, and a result in their environment. What distinguishes human beings from other living creatures is our freedom to choose the impact we will create. The critical question is whether that impact is positive or negative—whether it adds value or diminishes it. I will address this in detail later.

Following this introduction, if we want to understand leadership and formulate a path toward good leadership, we must seek answers to these questions:

• What is the source of the leader’s power?
• What factor, motive, or need moves the leader to act?
• How does the leader use this power? Is it abused, or used for meaningful work? More plainly, with what intention is it used?
• Is the leader’s impact accidental, or does it arise from conscious choice?
• How can the leader use power in the right direction and produce results through conscious choice?
• Toward what should the leader direct their energy?

Some of these questions are descriptive, some explanatory, and some normative. If we speak of formulating a path for leadership, we already have an idea of how a leader should be and what path one should follow to become a leader. Let us explore these questions.

The Leader’s Motives and Needs

Behind every person’s action or inaction—behind every behavior—lies a motive or an unmet need. When we are hungry, our need to sustain life moves us to find food. Our need for safety leads us to seek shelter and build homes. These are called survival or basic physiological needs.

Communicating with others, forming bonds, spending time together, and belonging to a group result from our emotional needs. These are needs human beings share with other living creatures. In addition, people have needs for status and respect. Learning and acquiring knowledge express our intellectual needs. The most distinctively human element is the need to find meaning in our work or leave a mark behind. Since this is not our main subject, I will leave the discussion there.

What matters for understanding leadership is the motive from which a leader acts. Based on the needs described above, we can divide the needs directing behavior into two principal groups:

1. Acting to compensate for deprivation or deficiency
2. Acting to develop and contribute

The difference between these groups is as stark as black and white. Put briefly: Will the leader act to become the best or number one in the world, or to become the best or number one for the benefit of the world?

In the first group, the leader or individual starts from the feeling “I am lacking,” and behavior is guided by fear. The leader therefore attaches great importance to power and strives to acquire it. The tools used are control, manipulation, defense, preservation of the status quo, and judgment. Protective and defensive behavior includes the perception of threat and the assumption of an enemy. The leader acts out of the anxiety, “What should I do, and how should I be, in order to be loved, accepted, and complete?” Other questions occupying the mind are: “How do I appear? What do others think of me? Am I right? Am I safe?”

This level is concerned with protecting the leader’s safety and existence. In that sense, it exists in all living beings and performs an important function. The problem for a leader is that the feeling of deficiency never ends. The means available have little to do with this feeling; it is entirely psychological. If we do not feel competent and complete within, the amount of property, wealth, or power we possess outside makes little difference. Indeed, we use what we have to accumulate still more.

In the second case, by contrast, the leader sees themselves as complete and inherently valuable. Every event and situation is regarded as an opportunity to learn and grow, while the leader seeks opportunities to place their qualities at the service of others. The starting point is to touch the lives of those around them and create positive change. In doing so, the leader shares, acts spontaneously and naturally, avoids artificiality, shows compassion, remains open to cooperation and experience, learns from life, and spreads happiness. The fundamental question is, “What will make my life meaningful?” Many leaders who have left a lasting mark have answered: “My existence on earth has a meaning: to serve others with what I possess.” In this way, the leader contributes to the civilization humanity is striving to build. It is worth recalling the Prophet Muhammad’s saying: “The best among you are those who are most beneficial to people.”

In summary, a leader either acts selfishly from fear or proceeds from the perspective of how to contribute. Different leadership styles emerge according to the perspective adopted. As one might expect, leadership rooted in deprivation—centered on ego or the lower self—does not produce the results we desire. Before examining these styles, I would like to address an important issue in leadership literature insofar as it relates to our subject.

What Do We Expect from a Leader?

As defined above, “a leader is a person who creates an impact.” This includes obtaining results and influencing others. Impact occurs within an environment; a leader does not live in a vacuum. To obtain results, we expect the leader to concentrate energy on two areas:

1. The work or task to be done
2. The people with whom the leader works

Research shows that concentrating on either area while neglecting the other has negative consequences. Focusing only on the task reduces employee commitment and motivation. Focusing only on employee well-being causes tasks to be neglected and undermines desired results. Effective leadership behavior emerges from caring for people without neglecting the task.

Connecting this point with the leader’s needs will help us understand why the authentic leader we desire can emerge through inner transformation.

Focusing on People from a Motive of Deprivation

Acting from deprivation or inadequacy is rooted in feeling insecure and leads us to seek guarantees for our own safety. In this leadership style, we try to compensate for our deficiencies by pleasing people. Feeling valuable and safe depends on gaining approval and admiration from those with whom we relate. In other words, our strategy for winning is deliberately choosing to lose in order to be liked.

Such a leader, driven by self-protection, yields, sweeps conflict under the carpet instead of resolving it, avoids confrontation, and tries to please others whenever possible.

We can readily say that this leader is unaware of their real power and even fails to protect personal boundaries. Instead of using power, they submit to it in order to protect themselves. The types we call sycophants in everyday life fit this category. Because they have no views of their own, abandon them easily, and cannot maintain a clear stance, they do not command respect.

Focusing on the Task from a Motive of Deprivation

A leader may try to overcome feelings of deficiency and inadequacy by wanting everything under personal control. The motto becomes, “I am the boss here; what I say goes.” Others are expected to obey without question and follow. Such leaders wholeheartedly believe that attack is the best defense. This strategy naturally depends on power, which becomes extremely important and is pursued intensely.

Another behavior is attacking others in order to appear right and good. The leader tries to establish personal existence through the negation of others, tends to see life as a battlefield, and believes respect and approval depend on winning the battle. Nothing is good enough; the leader constantly searches for mistakes. This style has a destructive and alienating effect. People withdraw, lose energy, and cease to trust themselves.

Leadership from the “Essence”

I do not believe that leaders consciously and deliberately choose the harmful styles described above when they could act better. In general, I believe people put into practice what they understand to be good, beautiful, and true. We may compare this with defining darkness as the absence of light. A person’s lack of enlightenment or insufficiently developed consciousness leads to “dark” actions. Human beings are good in their essence; that goodness exists as a concealed potential. I therefore believe harmful, destructive, and ineffective behavior should be explained by a leader’s position on the developmental scale.

A leader who has entered the process of inner transformation has made contact with the essence and strives to develop in order to reveal their potential. Every encounter is treated as a learning opportunity. Such a leader possesses confidence, energy, a positive approach to life, childlike curiosity toward the environment, and the ability to enjoy the journey.

I maintain that people who have advanced on the path of inner transformation will honor whatever role or responsibility they undertake, build healthy relationships, and do meaningful work. Alongside finding inner peace, they will establish balance between work and relationships.

For a leader acting from the essence, there is no dilemma between people and task. The approach is not the exclusionary “either this or that,” but the inclusive, holistic “both this and that.” By perceiving and reflecting on the requirements of the present moment, the leader engages with what is most beneficial at that time and fulfills what the situation demands. This does not mean adapting like a chameleon to every time and place. On the contrary, it means remaining continually alert and ready. To be fully present is, in one sense, to be in a state of presence and peace. It is possible only by doing justice to the moment.

Just as it is important to honor every moment, it is vital to understand the flow of time and fulfill its requirements. Awareness of the situation requires directing attention outward from ourselves, developing sensitivity to read the environment, feeling responsibility to improve it, and possessing the will to act without delay. The psychological concept of being “in flow”—becoming one with the environment and losing oneself in action—fits this state beautifully.

A leader who adopts a stance responsive to the environment also demonstrates the virtue of taking responsibility for action, because the choice was made consciously and with awareness rather than mechanically or instinctively.

At the next stage of development, the leader not only honors the moment but also sees present conditions within the larger picture, perceives what came before and what may follow, rises above events to recognize what ideally should be done, and cooperates with other essences to cultivate the earth through the distinctive qualities brought from within.

We will now consider what is needed for leadership capable of balancing work and people and leaving a meaningful mark.

As a Human Being, “Who Am I?”

Much of what is written about humanity in general and leadership in particular changes according to beliefs and assumptions about the universe, life, and the human being. I will therefore share my assumptions about humanity, human nature, and our presence on earth.

My most fundamental belief is that human beings do not wander the earth without purpose. We previously expressed the basis of human value through a prophetic saying. Put differently, every individual has a special task or mission to fulfill on earth. Our responsibility is to discover and realize it. In doing so, a person helps build civilization, creates a consciously chosen impact, does meaningful work, and leaves behind a legacy for which they will be remembered positively.

Another assumption is that every living being carries an inner drive to reveal its potential. A watermelon seed seeks its soil, nourishment, growth, and fruit. A carnation seed likewise seeks to reveal what lies within and reflect its beauty outward. The most mysterious aspect is that the seed already contains all the qualities it will need.

Like other living beings, a human being has an essence that contains potential, just as a seed does. As fruit is born from the seed, so the contribution a leader makes—the leader’s impact, service, or fruit—will emerge from this “essence.”

Just as a seed and its qualities make another living being what it is, the essence makes each person a distinctive individual. This is what makes every one of us unique. We know physiologically that every person’s fingerprint is unique—another sign of how special we are. What is true physiologically also applies psychologically.

Before continuing, let us try an exercise to identify what makes you unique. You may ask someone you trust for support. Have that person ask, “Who are you?” and give the first answer that comes to mind—for example, “I am Hüseyin.” They may take notes. Then have them ask again, “Who are you?” A second answer might be, “I am a father.” Let them continue asking as you continue answering. There are thousands of people named Hüseyin and millions of fathers, so these are not unique to me. They are our outermost characteristics, like the layers of an onion. Continue answering “Who are you?” for at least three minutes. As you peel away the layers and go deeper, you will begin to discover the qualities that make you who you are.

When we lose contact with our essence, we wobble like a wheel that has lost its axis. Our behavior becomes artificial, inconsistent, and unstable, and a self alien to us emerges. We experience tension and unrest within, while the impression and impact we leave on others become negative. No one finds such a person credible or trustworthy enough to follow or take as a model.

The essence within longs to be nourished, grown, accepted, and enabled to realize its uniqueness. Cultivating and strengthening the essence allows us to reveal our inner potential. In one sense, freedom means allowing the essence that makes us who we are to grow, develop, and take the wheel of our life.

What distinguishes human beings from other creatures is that we must do this intentionally, through choice and effort. Human beings can choose and possess a limited free will. We may descend to the lowest of the low or, through effort, rise to the finest of creation. The determining factor is the impact we create. Let us now focus on that.

“What Will My Contribution Be?”

Each of us is born into a particular family, period, and set of circumstances. Viewed within the larger picture, these conditions point toward the contribution we are to make. The Turkish proverb “A stone is weighty in its proper place” means, to me, finding the space one is meant to fill and supplying what is missing there. At the beginning, we stated that “everyone has a special task on earth, and the meaning of life lies in discovering and fulfilling that task.”

The task is fulfilled when the seed—the essence we carry as potential—bears fruit. That fruit is the impact each person will create on earth, the contribution made to cultivating the world. This is why I say everyone is a leader or a potential leader. When we discover our contribution—as though excavating for a valuable mineral—and place it at humanity’s service, we become authentic leaders who leave a mark.

We may imagine humanity as a vast jigsaw puzzle formed by everyone’s contribution. When each person places their piece—themselves—where it belongs, part of the larger picture is completed. Every piece is valuable, and no piece can replace another. Some of us are doctors, nurses, technicians, businesspeople, politicians, cleaners, researchers, teachers, and so on. When we become the best we can be and fill the place that is ours, a beautiful picture emerges. Otherwise, conflict, confusion, chaos, and disorder become inevitable. If you can answer the question “Am I in the right place and doing the right work?” by saying, “Even if I were not paid, I would continue this work without hesitation, with enthusiasm and excitement,” you are on the right path. Many people around us cannot answer positively. In my view, this is where many of our problems originate.

In summary, there is a space a leader must fill, and by filling it the leader fulfills their responsibility. I invite you to reflect on “What will my contribution be?” and find an answer, even if it is not yet perfectly clear. A clue: start where you are—with your family, responsibilities, workplace, neighborhood, district, and friends. I am certain you will find many opportunities to contribute.

The Journey of Inner Transformation

Being and behaving in the manner described above is not something that happens overnight. Even intending to do it does not mean we are immediately capable. It is a journey of transformation requiring effort and knowledge, captured in the saying, “I was raw, I burned, and I became mature.” A caterpillar emerging from its cocoon and becoming a butterfly is a beautiful metaphor. The cocoon is a crucial stage and produces radical change from what came before.

I want to draw attention to the difference between change and transformation. Change is movement on the same horizontal plane from the current state to a different positive or negative state. Transformation changes dimensions and moves to a different level of consciousness. When the caterpillar transforms, it is no longer a caterpillar; it is a butterfly—a unique butterfly with a beauty of its own that expresses its essence.

Would a colorful butterfly emerge if the caterpillar made no effort? It is the same for human beings. “Those who do not move never notice their chains,” says one writer. When a leader intends to develop and takes a step, the things that must be cleared from the path immediately appear: fears, anxieties, the fear of losing what one possesses, concern about what others will say. As the individual overcomes these obstacles and self-sabotaging patterns with discipline and determination, a more authentic leader emerges—more sensitive to the surroundings and capable of creating positive impact.

This process is the leader’s construction of the self. At first, the need to feel safe is natural, for every living creature acts from the instinct for survival. Yet physical safety is different from feeling emotionally complete and competent. The point at which many leaders become stuck is the psychological perception of deprivation. Becoming aware of our own state is a major step in transformation. Before or after taking action, let us examine the intention with which we approach the situation. Did we act to satisfy a sense of deprivation, or to create benefit? The outward behavior may look identical, but its effect on inner peace is very different.

In constructing ourselves, we must develop all our faculties through practice. First, we step out of our comfort zone and sail toward new regions within. Try doing something you have said is “not for me.” In this way, begin bringing to light and activating the parts of yourself that have become blind, covered in ash, or neglected in the rush of daily life. You will see that these experiments give you new dimensions.

We discussed the leader’s needs above. Leaders possess faculties for meeting them: the mind for learning and understanding; the heart for loving, being loved, compassion, and relationship; and willpower for acting and bringing the good into life. As an action plan, you may seek development in these three areas: learn something new every day, establish a deep connection with someone every day, and have a new experience every day. Daily life is rich enough to offer all these, if only we know how to see it.

At the start of the day, imagine that it might be your last. Your answer to “What would I do if today were my last day?”—and acting in accordance with it—will transform the impact you create around you. The path of realizing our potential is abundant with blessings, yet only those who walk it know this. And only those who have walked the path can become models and guides for those who follow and show them the way.