SAFUN

When I read Nan Palmero’s MySA blog posting on his thoughts what makes a great leader, I was inspired to write my own thoughts on leadership. Many of us have different views on what we believe to be necessary qualities of true leaders (although attitude will almost always be one of them). I think every leader should have the following 5 qualities :

Willing to engage
I believe that leaders have to be willing to go out and meet people, get to know them on a personal level and be able to find a unique quality in that person that can be used to have a positive impact on others. I think often times, persons in high level positions don’t see the importance in engaging with others at various levels. You cannot be a leader without followers. You create followers by listening, understanding and helping.

Doesn’t get hooked on titles
One of my favorite books is “You don’t need a title to be a leader” by Mark Sanborn.  When someone asks you where you want to be in 10 years, your answer shouldn’t be “I want to be a CEO of a company” or “I want my company to be #1 in the industry.” What matters most is how you get there. If you do all the right things, you will be put into a position to lead. One of my favorite quotes from a leader was from Lanham Napier, CEO of Rackspace. When Rackspace went public, they hosted a large employee event to announce the news. I joined my husband for the event. When Lanham went up to speak, one of his comments really stuck with me. He said something along the lines of  “Rackers, I do not want to walk through the office and see the stock ticker on your desktops. If we continue to provide Fanatical Support to our customers, the numbers will speak for themselves.” Focusing on the fundamentals and doing what is right for the customer is what will drive them to be a leader.

Attitude
Regardless of your skill level, experience, the number of people you know, you can never be a good leader without having an optimistic outlook on life. You may end up in unfortunate situations, someone may have burned you, you may not like everyone you meet but if you cannot find an optimistic outlet, it is almost impossible for you to succeed. You may be able to get by in the short run but you will never be able to endure leadership in the long run.

Brings others with you
Being a leader is not about you, it’s about everyone around you. It’s finding ways to bring out the best in others so that they too can lead. One of my favorite quotes was from Obama when P. Diddy  interviewed him 4 years ago before he was president. Obama was talking about celebrities and other high profile individuals like P. Diddy and said this: “There are a lot of brothers and sisters out there that are doing well but aren’t thinking about the folks being left behind. And if you can’t reach back and pull some folks up with you, then you shouldn’t be in the position you are in right now.”

Always willing to learn
Leaders should always be accepting that they don’t know everything and should look forward to learning from others. One of the most inspiring stories for me was that of Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s. He was a high school drop out and although extremely successful, he started “realizing that his success as a high school dropout might convince other teenagers to quit school (something he later admitted was a mistake).” So he became a student at Coconut Creek High School and earned a GED in 1993, at the age of 60 yrs!

We are never too old to learn.

I read a great article by Cary Clack in the MySA Life section of the Express News today. Cary Clack spent a day with various groups of sophomores at Sam Houston high school. The negative perception that these teenagers felt they had from the outside was disheartening.

The two most frequent responses were, “low performing” and “ghetto” as in “that it’s a ghetto school.” Other responses included, “that we’re all thugs,” “we’re not going to amount to anything” and “we’re poor.”

Clack goes onto say that some blame the school for providing them with this negative image due to bad academic performances that have been highlighted in the media. However, most of these students believe that they do possess a power within themselves to do something positive to change their image. But they need someone to listen. It’s not only the responsibility of their parents and teachers but it’s also a responsibility of the community. This is so important to recognize.

Many times our youth don’t see the doors of opportunity. They might come from a broken home, parents work too much, or maybe they don’t even have a place called home. How can they reach for the stars if they can’t see the stars? We can’t always leave it up to teachers either. We know they are overworked and underpaid. It’s our (the community’s) responsibility as well.

My uncle is a basketball coach at Jefferson High School. He has been coaching there for almost 20 years. One tradition that he does every year (and has done so for the past few years) is enter his team into a basketball tournament in the Washington DC area. He holds fundraisers to cover the accomodation and transportaion costs. He takes them not because of basketball, but to show them our nation’s capitol. Many of these kids have never been outside of San Antonio or even stayed in a hotel before. They are given this golden opportunity to see something real, not just in the paper or on the radio. We can continue to say oh yes, you can be a lawyer, doctor, politician but when they see these opportunities visually, it becomes more real for them. It gives them that hope that we want our youth to embrace.

Did you see President Obama’s address yesterday? At the very end of his speech, he recognized a very special girl, Ty’Sheoma Bethea. Bethea is a young girl from a school in South Carolina that President Obama went to visit.

a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless

She took it upon herself to go to the public library and write a letter to the White House and even asked her teacher to pay for the stamp.

“We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world.  We are not quitters.”

President Obama invited her to the capitol to sit in on his address. I saw this girl sitting right next to First Lady Michelle Obama. What a strong, courageous girl. It’s one thing to get our youth to speak up, another thing to get people to listen and yet another to get people to act upon it.

The last portion of Clack’s article mentions that Sam Houston High School will be receiving love from the God Parents Youth Organization (G.Y.O.). This organization was started by a Los Angeles school bus driver, Tanya Walters, in 2005.

She realized that she and her fellow drivers had formed bonds with the teenagers that they drove to and from school every day, and that they could be used to change lives. The route they have driven since starting G.Y.O. has covered thousands of miles and opened hundreds of young eyes to a world that exists beyond some of the toughest streets of Los Angeles. A world many of these kids never new existed. A world many of them never dreamed of seeing.

This program sponsors children that are in schools that are suffering, such as Sam Houston High School, and takes them to places that they never dreamed of ever going: Historical landmarks, college campuses, museums and memorials. Again, it’s giving our youth something tangible to see so their hopes become real.

As I write this, I think about what can I do? I am always intrigued to help our youth, teach them, inspire them. It’s a matter of finding the time and the right organization. I have officially signed up with Junior Achievement and will be teaching middle school students the fundamentals of starting their own business. I can’t wait! I did Junior Achievement 3 years ago and I had such a blast. Our youth can also inspire you.

I will keep you posted on my experiences.

I attended the PEER 1 Leadership Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona this past week. We stayed at the 5 star resort, Fairmont Princess. It was quite a treat and I am so appreciative to work for a company that invests in their employees the way PEER 1 does. Over the course of 2 days, we had time to reflect and engage in discussions with team members regarding leadership.
Tuesday evening we had a chili cook off contest by the pool and that was exciting! Tuesday evening was also the Presidential Election. It was hard to concentrate on the task at hand because we were all thinking about who was going to be our next President. All of us, including our Canadian colleagues, were so engaged and anxious. It was the first time some of our Canadian colleagues actually wanted to be an American. They wanted to be able to vote in one of the most important elections in history yet. When the numbers presented themselves and Obama won, we cheered. I couldn’t believe it! I had to go back to my hotel room to watch the speech because I wanted to be fully focused on what Obama was going to say. Seeing him and his family come out was so beautiful and his speech was more than what I was expecting, it was moving. To see all the people gathered in Grant Park, all the people march in front of the White House, all the parties held across the world made me feel so proud to be an American. I actually felt, for the first time in years, that we could be a united country. We do have people that care and share the same passion. We just needed someone to lead the way.
I watched the news until I fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up to the New York Times paper at my hotel room door. Front cover story was Obama’s Presidential Election win. I am keeping this paper forever! In conjunction on what I was able to learn from our leadership conference, I actually learned a great deal on leadership from Obama’s win. Obama has taught us that if you have a goal or a dream in life, you can obtain it even if it is against all odds. Excuses are not acceptable. He has also taught us that you can’t do it alone and need the support of others.
I will never forget this day. What I was doing and where I was will remain in my memory forever. I was able to hear stories from my grandparents about World War II, the Great Depression, JFK and MLK and now I will have a story to tell my children and grandchildren. A beautiful story on one of the most historic events in US history.

I was driving in an inner city neighborhood in San Antonio, Texas and saw this sign in someone’s front yard. It was so big and so close to the street that it was hard to miss. I can’t believe that this type of ignorance still exists and it really appalled me to see it in San Antonio, a large city with a high percentage of minorities. I hate to give this sign so much attention because that’s obviously what these people are looking for but I think it’s a topic of discussion. It’s so disheartening to know that there are people (a large percentage of them) that cannot see through the surface and judge on a person’s character, their values and their knowledge.