What kind of leader do you want to be?

Yesterday I challenged a friend with this question. And from that question on, we entered into a passionate dialogue about leadership, asking ourselves whether or not we believed that every one of us is capable of being a leader.
As a coach, and being truthful to my commitment to this choice in life, I believe that all of us, and each one of us should stand as players of our lives and challenge ourselves to become leaders. I also believe we only truly lead through example: my actions, when aligned with my thoughts and words and with ethical principles, generate the authenticity that is capable of inspiring others to do the same and live integrated lives.
But leadership without an honest and transparent commitment to a greater good is void and senseless to me… and it can easily become a means to controlling or restraining other people’s liberties…
There are different kinds of leadership. And I also think that anyone can become any type of leader he/she may choose to be…
I wish we're able to become conscious about the choices everyone of us is making every day considering leadership. I have a list of questions that help me align with my vision everyday: am I giving up my responsibilities as a leader? Am I conscious about my choices concerning leadership in my family, in my jobs, in my Communities? Who are the leaders I admire? What values they stand that I recognize in me? What am I doing to live upon these values? Am I saying “yes” when my heart tells me I should say “no”? Am I conscious about the way I see the world and how I act in response to this view? Am I fully responsible for my actions? Am I acting more by omission than commitment? Am I being a "victim of circumstances" when I tell my stories in my conversations or am I being responsible to act with integrity and face the circumstances that affect me? Am I inquiring in order to prove me right, or am I inquiring to discover things I still ignore?
What kind of leader are you choosing to be everyday in your life?

Management by rumors

I've been googling "management by rumors" but most of the resulting entries talk about intentional misuse of communication, examples of situations where people strategically use false information to get a given result.
But what really worries me is when our mental models prevent us from absorbing the complexity of a given situation, leading us to misinterpret facts and design our strategy based on beliefs instead of facts...
What I call "Management by Rumors" is the kind of Management we base upon prejudice and pre-conceived and unquestioned beliefs, that lead us to terrible mistakes.
Management by rumors leads strategists to decide to cut costs that affect people's ability to perform well on their job. Management by rumors leads senior management to 'believe' people in the lower levels are 'lazy' and neglect their responsibilities intentionally.
Management by rumors generates a fertile ground for conflicts and prevent connection and team learning from happening...
Management by Rumors can only be eradicated by leaders that are conscious about their mental models and reflect constantly about their actions and thoughts.
If you are a leader, think very critically about the way you perceive your staff behavior. Pay attention to ideas that begin with: "he/she is lazy", "he/she is negative"; whenever we give people a label, we are tending to simplify human interaction complexity, and this simplification can be disguising a defensive routine in our reasoning strategy that prevent us from understanding complexity.