Issue160：第一篇，求拍：）

crossbowUID: 2689120

TOPIC: ISSUE160 - "The most essential quality of an effective leader is the ability to remain consistently committed to particular principles and objectives. Any leader who is quickly and easily influenced by shifts in popular opinion will accomplish little."
WORDS: 396          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2010-2-15 11:36:03

In contemporary society, whether in businesses or in goverments, leaders are confront increasing number of opinions from different groups. While they should remain committed to their principles and objectives, the public opinions should not be neglected. Otherwise, the effectiveness of their leaderships will be at the stake.

A primary responsibility of a leader is to inspire people and allow them to work toward common goals of all group members and to collaboratively solve social problems people suffer from. To achive common goals and solve common problems, a leader should setup a shared foundation for different groups, and does not biase toward any party. Too much focus on opinions of certain groups of people would compromise the interests of others. Therefore, an effective leader should weight among different views and work out a balance among them, and this requires independent thinking and the committment to perticular principles and objectives which are not influenced by popular opinions.

However, too rigidly following of certain principles without considering public opinons does not help, and is far too often harmful to an effective leadership. Such ignorance will result in the falling support rate from the majority groups or the public, which has negative impacts and even impede the realization of common goals, since people usually tend to work best for leader who respect their ideas and interests. Yet, too easily influenced by shifts in pupular options will hamper the execution of established policies and practices, which is the foundation for the success of any organization. Also, leaders who change their minds often following others will undermine public confidence.

We should also note that leaders are themselves humans. And humans can not aviod making mistakes. If a leader does not listen to advices and opinons from other people, they tend to make mistakes easily. Considering the example of Vitnamn War, the Nixon goverment ignored public objections on sending troops outside of America, and finally result in huge economic loss, political recession of the country. Many people's got killed in the war, and further social problems caused by the war has been lasted for decades.

Therefore, A effective leader should have the ability to think and make decisions independently, while he is open to popular opinions. At the same time, he should balance the interests of multiple groups, neither stick to perticular principles and objectives too rigidly, nor easily influenced by popular opinions.