WOW!!! That’s all I can say. After more than three years in the making, I am sitting in my office staring at my book. It isn’t just mine, because so many people made it a reality, but there it is, If You Will Lead by Doug Moran. There are only a handful of days that I can recall feeling this proud and pleased – the days my children were born, our wedding day, the day Laurie agreed to marry me. That’s about it. So thank you for sharing it with me.
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?
Leaders understand that crisis is inevitable. More than that, leaders know that crisis is a major driver of change, and change is essential to leadership. Leaders also understand that crisis often leads to panic, and panic can be devastating. In his poem ‘If-’, Rudyard Kipling offers this challenge: “If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;” Kipling’s first line from ‘If-’ encourages his readers to prepare for crisis. He also point out that other won’t prepare. “They will lose their head.” Finally, he points out that blame is an inevitable part of panic, and every leader understands that being a leader means that the blame will be directed at them.