We should all have role models, mentors, confidants, and trusted advisors to help us along our way in life. I have been fortunate to have several throughout my career. There are countless leaders throughout history from whom we can learn how to deal with adversity, how to create a vision and execute a plan to attain it, and how to develop talent. Here are a few additional individuals who I have found inspiration from how they approached leadership.
1. Rosa Parks:
"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."
Rosa Parks was an American civil rights leader who is perhaps best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955. She has been called the "mother of the freedom movement" as well as the "first lady of civil rights." Her refusal to give up her seat is the very essence of leadership - taking a stand (in her case, by not standing up) in order to do what was right and just.
"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."
When I was young, I was obsessed with George Washington Carver! There was a series of children's books that focused on the childhood of some of America's greatest leaders, scientists, athletes, and heroes. I think I read, George Washington Carver: Boy Scientist by Augusta Stevenson at least a hundred times. While a professor at the Tuskegee Institute, Carver built his laboratory out of ordinary items wherever he could find them. I tried my best to build my own home laboratory, so I could be just like George Washington Carver. The fact that my favorite food growing up was peanut butter and George Washington Carver made all kinds of things (not just food) out of peanuts probably helped him to be my childhood idol. His level of innovation and ingenuity in order to help him fulfill the teaching mission for his students is a great example for leaders, even by today's standards.
3. Master Chief Carl Brashear:
"It's not a sin to get knocked down; it's a sin to stay down."
I first learned about Master Chief Brashear while watching the movie, Men of Honor, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr and Robert De Niro. Master Chief Brashear was a U.S. Navy diver shortly after the Navy became desegregated. Master Chief Brashear is a great example of passion, dedication, and commitment to a goal. He overcame a number of challenges, including discrimination and outright racism to become the first African American Navy diver. He rose to the rank of Master Diver (the highest) in 1970, despite having his left leg amputated following an accident (during a salvage operation that has come to be known as the Palomares incident) in 1966. He served for an additional nine years before retiring in 1979.
4. Nelson Mandela:
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."
There are a number of civil rights leaders that I have read about and admired throughout my lifetime. The late Nelson Mandela (who incidentally was one of the main characters in my earlier list of movies about leadership, the 2009 film Invictus starring Matt Damon, as Francois Pienaar and Morgan Freeman, as the South African President Mandela). Nelson Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, but before that he spent over 27 years in prison for speaking out against apartheid. During his lifetime, Mandela received over 250 honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. To this day, he is held in deep respect by the people of South Africa, where he is affectionaly known by his Thembu clan name, Madiba and described as the "Father of the Nation." His 1994 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom is incredible and should be required reading for leaders!
5. Maya Angelou:
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
It's only been within the past couple of years that I have come to appreciate and enjoy poetry. The late American poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, is a personal favorite. Last year, I read the first of her series of seven autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings which tells the story of her life up until age 17 years. I have posted previously about a few of her poems (see Still I Rise, We are more alike my friends..., and Masks) , as her words of wisdom serve as an inspiration to us all.
"Good leaders never stop learning." If you are not learning from the leaders of the past, then how do you think you can lead others towards the future?
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