Leadership is a concept often associated with politics, business, and the military. In practice, however, a society's prosperity depends on leadership from the broadest set of activities and participants. Leadership should be contributed from every imaginable quarter, including (among others) the arts, medicine, theology, academics, research, and parenting. In other words:

Leadership is needed everywhere and leadership is everybody's business.

Parenting, noted above, may well be the most important form of grass roots leadership as it heavily influences the intellectual and moral development as well as the leadership and decision making ability of future generations. Some of the most troubled segments of our society are those where the basic family unit has been broken over a prolonged period of time.

Whether we think about it explicitly or not, we are all constantly engaging in leadership (with mixed results).

How many of us open the refrigerator in the morning, considering alternatives? Cereal, pancakes, or waffles? Is this decision worthy of mention in a discussion of leadership? This particular decision is fairly benign, but it can easily be extended to greater meaning and importance. Suppose the choices were cereal or eggs? Again, seemingly benign. But what if we've been recently informed our cholesterol is too high. Now the decision takes on a whole new meaning. Opting for eggs (a food with very high cholesterol content), is a decision to ignore medical advice. It's not a stretch to say that this decision is life and death. Beyond implications for the person staring longingly at the forbidden food, there are potential consequences for his or her family, who may be orphaned if the consumer repeatedly ignores medical warnings. In this particular case, setting the precedent of not eating the eggs, or determining not to buy them anymore, is very much a matter of leadership.

Similarly, leadership is at play when we decide not to take our children to fast food restaurants, when we limit their access to dangerous websites, to viewing of violence, or their exposure to foul language. We also exhibit leadership when we help a friend with an important decision, when we quit our job and embark on an entrepreneurial venture, when we elect to live our life with integrity, and when we exercise our right to vote.

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