Great Leaders Lift All Boats!

The saying "a rising tide lifts all boats" is often credited incorrectly to JFK. His speechwriter, Ted Sorenson, said he actually borrowed it from the New England Council who likely borrowed it from fishing stories originating in the region. Regardless of its origin, the continuous application of this saying in business and life make for powerful examples and storytelling.

Some combination of skills: enthusiasm, passion, energy, confidence, intelligence, commitment, determination and likely a dozen more, make some people special. People get stirred by impassioned speeches but are even more so by the leadership traits exhibited by inspirational people such as the Dalai Lama or Immaculee Ilibagiza (read her story "Left To Tell") http://www.amazon.com/Left-Tell-Discovering-Rwandan-Holocaust/dp/1401908977 . Truly special individuals can evoke a powerful motivation in others. George Patton comes to mind here, he had it. George C. Scott had it too, though it manifested itself as he played Patton so effectively people actually believed he was Patton himself. Reagan had it, so did MLK, Magic Johnson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Robbins and even some notorious bad guys we won't mention.

I worked for a leader once who had such passion for what we were doing that he could influence your activity by the tone of his voice. It was 2002 and our company was in poor shape. We had about 30 employees and less than 100k in the bank. Most of us were working for nothing or next to it. We had no clients and no revenue. At the time, I suffered from migraines and one morning I left for the day to sleep it off. A couple hours later I awoke to a ringing phone. My boss had called to inform me that we had received a returned phone call from a senior executive at a HUGE target account. He had not only returned the call, but also agreed to a meeting. Though a long way from a sale, the sheer excitement in my boss’s voice had me sit up straight in bed. I was so moved by his excitement that I dressed and drove the hour back to work arriving at 3PM to complete the work day. This man has such enthusiasm and an ability to communicate excitement in a way that just by talking, he has the power to motivate people to action.

This story illustrates a leader so effective that those he leads are by definition better themselves. I often recall this experience when I am struggling to roll out a new product or fix a broken one. These special few have high leadership lids (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/maxwells-first-law-lid-christian-j-farber/edit) as John Maxwell would say, and because of their high leadership quotient they are able to raise the level of effectiveness of everyone around them like a rising tide lifts all boats.

My Best,