A one year ago today, the world lost a special person, Moe Moran. He was one of best people I’ve ever known, and he taught me much about life and leadership. He was my father and my friend, and I had the privilege to offer our family’s tribute at his funeral. Since then, many of people asked me to send them a copy of my remarks, and others have encouraged me to post them here. I hope learning a bit about this great, yet unsung leader will help you become a better one yourself. Thank you for indulging me in a tribute to someone I love.
Why is that we feel compelled to take words that mean one thing and twist them to mean something completely different? In my youth, somehow the word “bad” came to mean “good.” Today, I hear kids using the word “sick” to mean “great” or “awesome.” This isn’t simply a practice reserved for the young. I recently came across a word that connotes something radically different from the definitions we find in the dictionary. The word is “visionary.”
This summer I wrote a piece entitled, The Four Most Important Questions. In that post, I asserted that leadership success depends upon our ability to understand and answer four questions: Who am I? What do I want? What attracts others to choose to follow me? How can I earn and retain the privilege to lead?
Before I get started, I want to clear the air. Yes, I know this first question seems to be extraordinarily self-absorbed. The fact is that leadership requires that we as leaders understand ourselves. Leadership requires self-awareness, not self-absorption. There is a huge difference.
Much of my leadership writing and guidance centers on the importance of awareness and choice. To become the leaders we have the potential to be, we need to be aware of the leadership opportunities we face, and we must choose to act on them. Easy, right? Obviously not, or we wouldn’t be investing so much time and money on books, seminars, coaching, consulting. . . .