From Sitapati Prabhu’s blog post:

He responded by saying: “I’ll tell you what the one thing that won’t make you a leader, but will disqualify you from being one, is: Integrity.”

addendum: The above quote was actually a typographical error as mentioned in the comment below.

my reply:

– and I certainly hope you didn’t take this nonsense onboard. Afterall – the goal isn’t just to be a ‘leader’ – especially at the cost of integrity. This is a clearly articulated politician’s conception of leadership. Srila Prabhupada’s views on leadership are much the opposite of these so called ‘leadership’ gurus.

Why do these people exist!?!?! The idea of superimposing ‘leadership’ genericly on anything is retarded in my opinion. First have a cause that is deeply worthy of following and then leadership is a natural outcome. These people seem to be working in the opposite direction -> first manipulate yourself and others into believing that you are a leader of some sort and then worry about the ‘why’ and ‘why YOU specifically have to be the leader’ afterwards. Why is it that some folks just have to be the leader of everything they are involved in without regard to the qualification of others who may not be as bullyish or desperate for influence and positional power? Sadly, its a paradigm that can almost be expected every time a group of uncultured westerners get together to do nearly anything. Usually its justified by the stock condescending quip: “Well son, there are two types of people -> leaders and followers.” (Of course the person who puts this forward invariably assumes themselves to be of the ‘leader’ caste.)

Honestly -> this kind of stuff worries me when I think of the future of ISKCON. Mind you, I respect that anyone can go about things however they want. I just think that in ISKCON at least we should aspire to apply Srila Prabhupada’s conceptions of leadership (and everything else for that matter) before we brew up our own directive based on the advice of the illusioned leaders of the illusioned. They’ve never had a cause so deeply intrensic to the soul as what Srila Prabhupada has given us. Why should we accept their gross conceptions as surrogate guidelines when dealing with Vaisnavas and Vaisnava preaching which lie far far beyond the purview of their consciousness and vision? No! For that we need to turn to the authorities and leaders within our line who are often sent by Krishna personally to set the example of leadership for us.

I’m re-reading the book ‘The Seventh Goswami’ which is a biography on Srila Sacidananda Bhaktivinode Thakur. Now that’s a book to take onboard if you want to be a leader. What an example he has set for us! So by reading about nitya-siddha leaders not only can we see more clearly how to conduct ourselves but we can imbibe the reverence for our predecessors which allows for us to receive their blessings. By procuring these much needed blessings we naturally will become leaders of genuine Vaisnava communities if that is what Krishna has in store for us … not by our own manipulative schemes and imagining ourselves to somehow be natural born leaders. These justifications for taking over the decision making for other devotees lead to offense and disillusionment in the long term. Bad preaching for sure.