This morning I had the awesome opportunity to join a bunch of other Atlanta area business people at the AJC's 100 Best Georgia Companies Awards Breakfast with former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
We had killer seats right up front and it wasn't until 15 minutes into breakfast that I realized Giuliani was parked at the table diagonal from ours. He talked with us for about an hour about six qualities that strong leaders all have in common. It was interesting because just before he went on, they had a panel of 5 CEOs from the top-ranked Georgia companies for this year answer the question of "what is the most important quality a CEO must have to lead their organization successfully."
I would love to go in depth about "Rudy's Six" but fear that time is not on my side today so here they are:
1. Strong Beliefs (devote time to thinking and making goals)
2. Optimistic - focus on solutions and remain calm and positive
3. Courage - does not mean a lack of fear, it means recognizing fear and overcoming it. We MUST be willing to take risks.
4. Relentless Preparation - If you prepare for everything you can think of, when the unexpected happens you will still be prepared because it will be a variation of your practiced scenarios. He used specific examples from 9/11 how they had not planned for a disaster of that magnitude, but all the other plans (like triage and evacuation procedures) allowed them to move forward.
5. Teamwork - A leader asks themselves 'what are my weaknesses and how do I balance them with strengths of others.'
6. Communicator - A leader is able to communicate all of the above. i.e. A coach of a football team does not do a thing on the field but is a teacher and a motivator and leads the team to victory because they can communicate effectively with the team.
In the end, Rudy says: "You can do all of these things but none of it matters unless you CARE about people. Organizations are comprised of people. People with emotions, personal lives... you can not ignore these things. If you are successful in this area, you and your organization will be successful too."
If you ever get a chance to hear Rudy in person - go! - He's a phenomenal speaker and quite the comedian too!
3 comments:
That is some great advice, thanks for sharing them with us!
That must have been amazing! Thank you for sharing. You know how to inspire.
Thanks Liana for sharing what you experienced, it's so encouraging to me as an up and coming photographer to be helped by what you put out on your blogs. I really appreicate it. Thanks for all your help directly and indirectly. :)
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