Woodrow Wilson called for leaders who, by boldly interpreting the

In the words of James MacGregor Burns: “Woodrow Wilson called for leaders who, by boldly interpreting the nation’s conscience, could lift a people out of their everyday selves. That people can be lifted into their better selves is the secret of transforming leadership.” These words resound like the voice of a prophet across the ages, for they do not speak of power as domination, nor of office as privilege. They speak of the higher calling of leadership—to awaken the slumbering greatness within a people, to summon them beyond comfort and habit, and to raise their eyes toward nobler destinies.

The ancients knew well the difference between rulers and true leaders. A ruler commands through fear and compulsion, but a leader stirs the conscience. Consider Moses, who stood before a people weary and broken in the desert. He did not merely feed them or command them—he lifted their vision toward a promised land, reminding them that they were not slaves, but a chosen people. This is the essence of transforming leadership: to remind men and women of their higher selves, even when they are tempted to remain bound to the ordinary.

History bears many such examples. Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of civil war, spoke not only of battles and strategies but of the better angels of our nature. His words called Americans to see beyond vengeance, beyond division, toward the unfinished work of freedom. He interpreted the conscience of a fractured nation and dared to give it voice, thereby transforming not only the present struggle but the future soul of the republic. His leadership was not transactional, but transformational.

By contrast, leaders who fail to inspire leave their people chained to smallness. They may govern, they may administer, they may even bring material prosperity, but they do not lift hearts. Rome under the later emperors grew rich in plunder but poor in spirit, its people more concerned with bread and circuses than with honor and duty. Without transforming leadership, the nation lost its inner strength, and its empire crumbled. This shows us that the true foundation of a people is not wealth or armies, but the spirit awakened by leaders who dare to speak to the soul.

Burns reminds us, too, that this kind of leadership requires boldness. To interpret a people’s conscience is not to flatter them, but to challenge them. Martin Luther King Jr. did not soothe the nation by saying it was already just; he thundered that justice was denied, and in doing so, he lifted the people toward their better selves. His “I Have a Dream” speech remains immortal because it called Americans not to stay where they were, but to become what they ought to be. This is the very secret Burns names: that leadership transforms by appealing not to what we are, but to what we are capable of becoming.

The lesson is clear: true leadership is not about having followers, but about creating visionaries. It is not about managing tasks, but about awakening purpose. Every person who aspires to lead—whether a parent, a teacher, a worker, or a ruler—must ask: Am I merely instructing, or am I inspiring? Am I simply directing, or am I lifting others into their higher selves? For in this lies the difference between ordinary authority and transforming leadership.

Therefore, O seeker, let this wisdom be written upon your heart: in your family, in your community, in your nation, strive to be the one who reminds others of their nobility. Speak to their conscience, awaken their vision, call forth their courage. Do not settle for the ease of keeping people as they are—labor instead for the harder, holier work of helping them become who they were meant to be. For in this sacred task lies the true secret of transforming leadership, the power not just to govern, but to change the destiny of a people.