Principle Centered Leadership II

The fundamental structure of leadership is the actual person, the leader. The character, the reputation, the thinking, values, mentors, and ethics that cover a person is the toolkit that will hold the principles that governs the way a person will lead.
Leaders lead people. Managers oversee processes that may or may not involve people. Leadership should be less about popularity and more about creating a sense of purpose, vision, value and crusade. Every great leader assembles a team whose main mission is to vary the vision, value and the crusade.
One reason why principle centered leadership is important is that if we are asking others to join a team, we should value them enough to lead a sustainable effort that will create value, purpose and accomplishment for them as well. Great leaders help others to achieve their goals and dreams while accomplishing the goals and dreams of the leader. We should never use people in order to promote ourselves. We should not be successful if our team is unsuccessful. When others are hurt or destroyed in our effort to be the 'top-dog' we are egotistical, selfish, self-centered, opportunistic and ungodly. A leader's greatest achievement is the other winners who are created on our way to success.
Principles that are universal:

1. Honest
2. Integrity
3. Morality
4. Sacrifice
5. Perseverance
6. Commitment to Personal Growth
7. Selflessness

Sometimes we are mistaken in thinking that only prominent and popular people are leaders. People like politicians, lawyers, doctors, religious icons. However, many real and successful leaders never achieve prominence in the public eye. I am thinking of the millions of good parents who each day raise children, some of their own and others their 'adopt' to go out into the world with a dream, a vision, a purpose and make a difference in their individual way. These unsung heroes, at times, sacrifice their own opportunities to allow their children to grow up in a place of safety, security, values, encouragement and positive influences. They daily exemplify honesty, integrity, selflessness, perseverance, morality so that those ever watching eyes not only hear a lecture but see a lifestyle.

I also think of the immigrant families who travel from the places of their roots in order to allow their children, nephews, nieces and cousins to have a better chance to fly a space shuttle, build a better bridge, discover the latest renewable fuel, write the next universal story.

These are real leaders whose influence and path to success birth generations of leaders who now lead backwards and forwards: they pull others up because of their sacrificial steps and pushing others forward because of the new leaders they help create.

Some Things Are A Tragedy

Two days ago a young man walked in to a historic mall here in Salt Lake City in a tench coat with a shot gun, a hand gun and lots of ammunition. Within minutes he had killed five people and wounded many others before being killed himself by police. In those short minutes hundreds of lives changed forever and a community was awakened. People shopping, dining, walking, talking or just hanging out were immediately cast into total fear, chaos and confusion.

Young lives taken in a blink of an eye; children lost parents and parents lost children. Another four in critical condition at various hospitals struggling to recover. A young Bosnian man also lost his life and his family are also now victims of this senseless and apparently random act.

Many experts and laymen are going to spend large amounts of time trying to explain why this happened, how it happened, where did he get the guns and how could anyone do something like this? That may be important to some to know however all those answers will not reverse the tragedy that took place. The tragedy is the innocent lives lost, the life of the gunman lost and many families broken and in pain for a very long time. All the answers in the world won't change that.

In times like this, a community is tested. How will we respond? A community is built in the relationships that are established in the good times and in the bad. How we respond to others speaks loudly about who we really are. It was amazing to see and to hear how total strangers became instant teams, and hopefully now acquaintances, as they began to try to find cover or to escape the shooting range. Parents were holding their children trying to shield then and console them. Total former strangers were close by trying to support those parents and reassure the children that everything will be well now that they were safe.

Out of tragedy can come triumph and it will in this case. At the same time, it is still a tragedy.

Twenty Four Hours In A Day

There never seems to be enough time to get everything done: work, school, business, church, sports, hobbies, kids. The more we do, there more there seems to be done. Life is good. I wish I could get some more sleep though.

The tyranny of the urgent keeps rapping at the heels of the important. I must remember to do the important first. There are only twenty four hours in a day no matter how much there is to do. When the day is over it's over and a new one starts immediately.

Yesterday in past; tomorrow is future; today is present - a gift.