I believe everyone can be a leader regardless of personality or background. Leadership isn’t for a lucky few; it’s for those who practice the micro-skills of getting people on their side and keeping them there.
It’s an interesting exercise to think about how people catch their “big break.” Usually we think of “big breaks” as cases of pure luck. It’s easy to think that a person only begins to “make it” after being in the right place at the right time.
But that’s hardly the case as MediaBistro’s series, My First Big Break, illustrates. Success isn’t simply built on luck, it’s built on hard work, tenacity, and humility.
The series asks six big names in journalism how they “made it” and their stories are interesting, exciting, and illuminating.
Luck plays a role in a lot of these examples, but each person profiled worked hard to capitalize on their good fortune. Luck fell into the their laps, but they did something with it.
Catching a “big break” is more about the work you put into it–not the luck.
You can write, you can teach, you can lecture, you can train, but in the final analysis the test of your ideas is in the hands of the practitioners.
At this point in my career the highest point of flattery is to hear someone say, “Your leadership model works,” “It makes a difference,” or “It’s of some use.”
On top of that, having put such emphasis on the micro-political skills as an essential aspect of leadership, what is especially flattering is to have a real world political leader make use of my leadership perspective.
Representative Mike Hubbard (R), has been a member of the Alabama House of Representatives for three terms and been elected the Speaker for the house this past year—a title that hasn’t been given to a Republican since Reconstruction.
Hubbard knows that leadership isn’t just about proposing big ideas, putting forth grand visions, and relying on charisma to get out of tight spots. He knows that leaders have to get things done and execute on agendas to get and maintain a leadership position.
The Change Leadership course that I authored for eCornell focuses on these skills—the skills of execution, the skills of mobilizing, and the skills of the moving agendas ahead. The course is a departure from typical leadership literature and doesn’t focuses on personality traits, but instead on the micro strategies of moving things forward within organizations.
Mike Hubbard had a chance to take the Change Leadership with eCornell and solidified his leadership traits and used them to push his change agendas.
Thank you Mike for the highest form of flattery—relevance.
Below are Hubbard’s thoughts on the Change Leadership course:
Fighting for what you believe in is part of leadership. Getting people’s attention is part of convincing the world that you should have the opportunity to lead. But is there a limit? Can you actually go too far in your attempts to become a leader? A relative unknown and a big-time underdog by the name of Dan Adler is running for Congress in California’s 36th District. Bold and sometimes odd campaign commercials are nothing new, but Mr. Adler’s latest ad is not only a bit strange but according to some is also teetering on the edge of bad taste. I would try to explain the commercial, but I believe this is one of those instances where justice cannot be done with words. Please watch the video below (trust me, it’s worth it!) and then let me know if you think this political ad is just an enjoyable bit of farce or in fact offensive. For full disclosure, I happen to be 1/4 Korean and I find it hilarious.
