Leadership by Risk

“The ultimate test of leadership is not the polls you take, but the risks you take. In the short run, some risks prove overwhelming. Political courage can be self-defeating. But the greatest defeat of all would be to live without courage, for that would hardly be living at all.” - Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford passed away Tuesday. I think he had a clear understanding of leadership. He understood it by going through the different gauntlets of his life. His adversity shaped him and helped him to lead.

We may prematurely want the pain of our circumstance to go away. What if we could see them as an opportunity in our life. Perhaps the unpleasantries and hard things would shape and stretch us towards making new decisions and thinking new thoughts. That’s where leadership begins. Thanks for the clarity, Gerald Ford.

What’s NEW On Your Resume?

I subscribe to several blogs one of which is Tim Sanders, author of Love Is The Killer App. In a recent blog Tim told a story about Jeremy Ring, an operations executive czar at Yahoo. He mentioned that Jeremy had a strong point of view that people need to improve on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. He mentioned that at a sales offsite in 2001, Jeremy posed the following question to young Yahoo’s: “Have you improved your personal resume in the last year? What is new on it?”

I thought what a great question. When you think of a resume, you think of a job application. I looked up the definition of “resume” in Websters Collegiate Dictionary and it is defined as: “A set of accomplishments; summary.”

So in 2006 what has changed on your resume? What accomplishments have you achieved? Not how many sales have you made if you’re in sales. Not how many houses have you sold if you are a real estate agent. What have you learned that you didn’t know? What has made you more valuable?

I thought about my own resume. It has grown immensely over the last year. I have studied and become proficient with Japanese Candlestick Charts. I have worked diligently at writing the past year. I have also become a full-fledged blogger. I have developed skills at partner relationship management and I have also devoted much time to productivity and time management. Take a moment and think what you have added to your resume this past year.

Now, what do you want to add to your personal resume in 2007? What books do you need to read? What people do you need to know? What places do you need to see? What software tools do you need to learn? What work experience would help you achieve more? If your list is really short and bland you are probably NOT growing. Think for a moment. If you continue to do what you have done the past 12 months where will you be? Tom Peters said it best: “If you don’t like change, you are going to hate irrelevance.”