Leading Is About The Small Things

I brought my friend Drew Dudley, who is the Coordinator Leadership Development at U of T Scarborough, in to do a leadership workshop with some of my classmates. I think understanding the different facets of leadership is an important step in growth no matter what field of work or life you aim to enter.

While he put us through an exercise on understanding social styles and the role that plays in how the team dynamic forms and performs, the end of his workshop came to the same point I came to in my studies of leadership: leadership is about being genuine and the best person you can be no matter what your strengths happen to be. You don't need to be the best at directing people, or the best public speaker, or the highest scorer on a team. Leadership happens in the small, more meaningful, encounters that happen every day, all around you.

Leadership is about being a beacon for being yourself and being comfortable and confident in that fact. People will follow you where you lead them if they can trust you, and trust is built from being true to yourself and true to others. We are not all born with the gifts of a Ghandi, or Martin Luther King Jr., or Bill Clinton, or any other famous leader that comes to your mind. In Drews estimation only about 1% of the entire world is born with that ability, in my estimation is probably far less than even that. However, that does not mean you can not be a leader, it just may mean that you wont be leading entire nations or droves of people.

Leadership happens most often, and within most of our realms of control, in the one-on-one encounters that happen everyday. We can be a leader to our friends, our family, our colleagues - this is where impact happens. We all dream of being the face of the biggest movement or the best business, but these instances will not happen if we can't first learn to lead from within our immediate environments. We must be a beacon.

Drew had one last point, which was this: If after years of being out of someones presence the mere mention of your name brings a smile to their face, a story to mind, or good laugh, and they have nothing but good things to say, then you made an impact - you were a leader. That is the point of real leadership and a lesson we all must come to terms with. We will not likely change the world for millions or billions of people, but we can change the world for the few people we come in contact with everyday. That is where you start. That is where you need to be.

Paul Rusesabagina

On Monday my college will be welcoming Mr. Paul Rusesabagina, the inspiration for the movie Hotel Rwanda, where he will do a speech about his experience. I have the pleasure of thanking him for coming and imparting his story of heroism upon us. After Monday I will post what I have to say, as I have been thinking about it quite diligently. It is a real honor to be able to meet him and listen to his tragic story. His story, unfortunately, is one that continues to have significance around the world, as similar conflicts are carried out all over. I also get the opportunity to have lunch with him and a select few other students where I have a few questions for him. Hopefully I will be able to post them as well as his answers afterwards.

If you want to learn more about Paul he has an autobiography out called An Ordinary Man that is available at all your major book retailers. I am about 50 pages in and I have already made mental notes of many things he says that I think are of significance. I am very excited for this opportunity.