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Great Leaders Ignite Hope

9/13/2022

2 Comments

 
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In our western culture, sometimes we can confuse celebrity with leadership. It’s not hard to do. After all, celebrities and leaders are similar in some respects.

Leaders and celebrities are both often people we admire in some way, for some reason. Often it is because of their extraordinary talent. We may be in awe of the things they do, perhaps better than anyone else we’ve ever seen. Their abilities may even inspire us to improve our own skills.

But, for the most part, we don’t see celebrities as everyday people like us. They’re exceptional, meaning it’s rare to find someone who can do what they do. Often, they’ve earned that celebrity status through dedication to their craft and plenty of hard work, or maybe extensive training. Sometimes, they are rare people because their abilities come more naturally to them than to most people. Sometimes they are more educated, more qualified, or have more credentials than most people.

Sometimes, but not always, that kind of celebrity also happens to be a great role model. Beyond just their talents, their life has qualities worth imitating. They use their talents to benefit others, not just themselves.
This is where the path of leaders diverges from the path of pure celebrities. While the focus of celebrity is on self, the focus of leaders is on others. While celebrity culture says, “Look at me,” leadership culture says, “Look at YOU.”

While celebrities gain more followers, leaders are busy making more leaders. While celebrities make what they do look hard, leaders try their best to make what they do look easy, so that others can learn to do it too.

While celebrities focus on being the best, accomplishing what no one else could, leaders focus on bringing out the best in others.

The most important gift a leader can give to those they lead is hope- hope for a better future, hope for better successes, hope that they can accomplish what they put their mind to. If we are true role models, people must believe it’s possible for them to someday fill our role.

There comes a time in our leadership journey when we see the opportunity to be more than the hero of our own story, but to make more heroes. We transition from focusing on our own successes to focusing on the success of others. We care less about their hope in us and more about their hope in themselves.
In our next newsletter, we’ll look at the pre-requisite for instilling hope in those we lead.

Food for thought: How have role models in your life ignited hope in your life? Have you told them how they have influenced you to grow or move forward with hope?


2 Comments
Jeannine
9/14/2022 10:00:10 am

This is one of the simplest and purist breakdowns of excellent leadership I have ever read. Thank you.

Reply
Kathy Brumfield link
9/14/2022 10:38:38 am

" ... leaders focus on bringing out the best in others" is a great statement about the ultimate goal of seeing a new generation of leaders take the helm.

Reply



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    Author

    Jay Pullins has been leading and developing leaders in a variety of settings for over 30 years. He has a diverse background as a leadership coach, military officer, an appointed state official, and executive leader of Alaska's largest church. Jay has trained over 1,400 leaders in the last five years, from Alaska to Southern California, in various fields from universities to military, construction, product distribution, manufacturing, telecommunications, churches, banks, casinos, and a railroad.

    A 1989 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Jay led U.S. and multi-national teams for the U.S. Air Force, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NORAD, and the Alaska National Guard. He led combat crews as an Air Battle Manager in Operation DESERT STORM, the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, no-fly zones over Iraq, and counter-drug operations in Central and South America. Jay retired as an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel in 2011.

    Jay served as Chief of Staff to the Lieutenant Governor, then Special Assistant to the Governor of Alaska. He also served as Executive Leader of ChangePoint church for five years. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the US Air Force Academy, and a Master's Degree in Adult & Higher Education from the University of Oklahoma.

    ​Jay and his wife, Sonia, live in Anchorage, Alaska, and have two grown sons, a daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren. Together, Jay and Sonia are vacation rental hosts. Sonia is an artist and art teacher. She owns Sonia's Art Studio in Anchorage.



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