The Font of Leadership

Leadership also begins in the home. It, too, is learned at an early age. I hold my father responsible for teaching me leadership. My father is naturally charismatic. Well, maybe he’d argue that it took years to develop his charisma, but my father is certainly the kind of person who can pull a room together in a way that eludes me to this day. I’m not a kid anymore, by any means, but I can’t hold a candle to my father in that regard. If charisma is one of the keys to leadership, my dad’s the Key Master.

Another of the keys to leadership is integrity. My father had that in spades, too. My older brother told me upon getting my first leadership assignment that there is no greater sin for a leader than lying to your direct reports by pretending that you are someone that you are not. “It takes a long time to build trust, one moment to lose it, and forever to get it back,” he told me. Wise words, no doubt. We both have my father to thank for that sense of integrity. Saying what you meant and acting upon those words…well, my father showed me that this is the true measure of a man.

Norman Schwarzkopf once said, “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” As children, that’s the leadership that my father modeled. I’m not just talking about leadership at work, either. My father conducted himself in the same way in his personal life. I recognize that I looked at my father through rose-colored glasses as a kid. Like my wife tells me, my boys think I hang the moon and stars each night, just for them. That’s how I saw my dad, too. BUT, I can also attest to the fact that my father led our family in such a way that charisma and character were always present. There’s compassion and confidence and decisiveness, too; my dad always seemed to know just what to do, just what he wanted, and just what all of us needed from him.

So, by simply and genuinely being a strong leader for our family, my father showed me the beginning of a path towards leadership. I learned by watching; I watched him at work, and I watched him at home. Like the path to spiritual enlightenment, the path of leadership is long, too. As a leader of people at work and as a leader in my home, I have traveled far and will travel farther still. As I look towards the horizon, I see a startling light ahead. When the burdens feel too great to bare, I look down at my feet and notice the path has been walked before. When I lose my way, I look to the footsteps of another to guide me: my father, the Font of Leadership.