I gave a speech to the American Society of Military Comptrollers (Kansas City chapter) on Thursday. It was great, I really had a great time, everyone treated me so well and Kansas City seems like a wonderful place (FANTASTIC BBQ!!).
In my speech, I spoke briefly about leadership - I think an important aspect of leadership is being credible. One of the stories I used to illustrate the point was:
The Evangelist Billy Graham tells of the time he was in a small town to preach a sermon. He wanted to mail some postcards when he came across a young boy. Billy Graham asked the young boy how to get the post office. The young boy told him and Graham said, "Thank you. If you'll come to the Baptist church this evening, you can hear me tell everyone how to get to heaven.""I don't think I'll be there" replied the boy. "You don't even know your way to the post office."
On the way home, I was reading Tao Te Ching - Lao Tsu said (Book 1, #17, Acting Simply):
"True leaders are hardly known to their followers. Next after them are the leaders people know and admire; after them, those they fear; after them, those they despise. ..."
That is slightly out of context, but powerful.
Very powerful, reminds me of the saying which goes something like: "Some people spend so much time being successful, they don't realize they are sucessful."
I was trying to think of an example .. but then if I could think of one they wouldn't be a true leader then would they?
Posted by: Chuck Conway | April 19, 2004 at 09:08 AM