Changing Lives

I have not been a student in any school or university where I did not know who the good teachers were.  We all did.  Good teachers are born good teachers, and if we are lucky enough to be among their students, they will change our lives.

I have never been in a company or an organization where I did not know who the good leaders were.  Every one knew.  It isn’t as if good leaders hide in the wings, or do not display their talents.  Good leaders are born good leaders; those who are not, are different.

This is not meant as a criticism.  Any organization needs both leaders and followers.  Too many of either kind is not good for any company.

As for leaders, I cannot recall any group that I have been part of where I had not spotted the true leader of the group, and very quickly.  The leader is the one whom the others look to for reactions, input and guidance.  The leader is the one who decides to continue or close the discussion.  Dress, manner of speaking and placement in the room may reveal the leader; so may the placement of the others in the room in regard to the leader.  But it is the personal and behavioral qualities that are key in identifying a true leader.

Try this experiment if you don’t believe me:  Just listen to the voices of the people in the room.  How long will it take you to decide who the leader is?  Respect, deference, humility, caution – all these qualities are present in the human voice.  I think you will know within 15 minutes who the real leader of the group is – even in a group of leaders.

Leaders come in all varieties, all colors, all ages and all classes.  There is usually an aura of self assurance in a leader’s posture, an openness to suggestion, and a humility that comes from decisions that should not have been made.  If there is one quality that most characterizes a good leader it is integrity.  A good leader says what he means, and means what he says.  A good leader is trusted, and returns the trust. 

It is a pleasure and a privilege to be taught by a good teacher.

The good teacher is also a good leader in the classroom.  Like a CEO, he has a vision and a mission to accomplish, and the class must decide if they want to go where the teacher’s vision will take them.  This is the mystery of leadership:  How do you achieve the consonance between a teacher’s lines of sight and the student’s decision to go there?  The born leader has a thousand ways that could be used, but only some of them will be used in any one situation.  A good teacher reads the class like an open book – he divines the directions and the forces of the students and sees where the resultant must go.  And that will be his chosen path.

Is there a more important task than to find those who can teach, and those who can lead?

The born teacher, and the born leader, are a nation’s greatest gifts.

An educated work force that leads the world in its chosen pursuits is the single most important asset of any country.

Knut Kloster built a great cruise line many years ago:  The Norwegian Caribbean Line.  He was the first to envision the mega-sized cruise ships that later followed, approaching the size of floating cities.  He was very interested in leadership.  He didn’t think that leaders could be made or trained.  In fact, he was convinced that they were born.  He thought the qualities of future leadership were visible in children, and that they were honed in thousands of initiatives taken over the years.

My first university level education took place at the Norwegian University School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen, Norway.  There, the school’s understood mission was to educate the future leaders of Norway.  During my second year I was elected president of the Student Club and for the 17^th of May, Norway’s Independence Day, I was asked to pick a number of students to participate in varying ceremonies around town.  I decided to pick those who had had at least some experience with leadership tasks.  “How many of you have been class presidents?” I asked.  A surprising number of people raised their hands.  I knew I had to add more criteria.  “How many of you class presidents have also been Scout leaders?”  Pretty much the same hands came up.  I ran upstairs and burst into the office of the Rector of the school, the legendary Professor Rolf Waaler.  “You are admitting scout leaders and class presidents!” I shouted at him.

He laughed. “You have found me out!”  He continued, “This is a young school – we have been in existence for only about twenty years.  It takes time to put together a superb faculty, so we have to make sure that we get superb students.  And since our mission is to educate the future leaders of Norway, why not pick from among those who already have proven leadership talents?”

For many years the school supplied the CEOs of Norway’s finest companies.  Rector Waaler had met the expectations of the founders of the school.

There is no law that says good leaders and good teachers must be likable, kind, friendly or personable.  I have seen leaders and teachers who were hard to like, unreasonable, difficult and prickly.  But somehow they caused the students to perform at their highest levels, they brought companies to global leadership in many industries, and they made everyone who knew them feel privileged for having had the experience of being taught by them, or of working for them.

These are the teachers, and leaders, who changed my life.  They are not many in number, but enormous in influence.  Due to them, my world is immensely better that it would otherwise have been.  Due to them, I have been privileged to live a good life.  This is my message to them:

Thank you!  It was the best gift I could have received when you became my teachers.  And it was the most useful education I could have received in later life, when I went to work for leaders like you.

I remember my teachers, because when they taught, lightning flared through my mind; for one brilliant moment I was transported by the sudden understanding they created in me.

I remember, too, the leaders who took me to places where I never would have gone by myself.

And that is why, when we are asked about those who have transformed our lives, teachers and leaders will always come to mind.

And each time I see them again – those who are still here – my day is made.