If I ask you to think of a leader, whom would you think of? I would think of Moses standing in front of his people with the Ten Commandments in his arms. I would think of Martin Luther King standing before his country with a dream in his heart. I would think of Malala.
standing in front of the world with the Nobel Peace Prize in her small hand. When we think of a leader, we often think of this very dynamic. One person, standing alone, speaking passionately to a crowd. That person made into a leader because others are following her. I've been a student and teacher of leadership for the past three decades, and this is what I have learned.
That the image that we conjure up when we think of true leadership is a false image. We respect the leaders in our lives, our Bibles, and our history books, and we often revere them. Even if these leaders have never been elevated to a mountaintop or to the steps of a monument, we elevate them in our imagination. But that high position is not why we hold them in such a high regard. We admire our leaders because they have held themselves to such a high standard and in doing so they have inspired us to do the same.
At the age of 20 he became king. He was a fearless fighter. He was undefeated in battle.
He was Alexander the Great. About 2,300 years ago Alexander marched his troops through the Persian desert. It was dry, it was desolate, and it was scorching hot.
About 30,000 of his men were tormented by thirst, and so was he. A small group of infantrymen decided to go off and search for water. They searched and searched, and they finally came upon a small ravine of refreshing water. Excitedly, one of the soldiers started to scoop up the water and rush it back to their leader. But when Alexander saw his men coming back, he only had one concern, and that was about quenching the spirit of his troops.
And so when they handed him the helmet, he took the helmet and he said, thank you, showing truly appreciation, thank you for the water. But then he took that same helmet and he held it up in full view of everyone to see. And he did the unimaginable. He took the helmet and he turned it upside down, spilling the water to the ground.
The message was clear that if his troops didn't have anything to drink, neither would he. This demonstration of leadership is how he became known. as Alexander the Great. Not because he was able to build empires or conquer nations or conquer armies.
No, he became great because he was able to conquer an instinct that most of us have. And that instinct is to think that leaders are superior. What he understood so profoundly is that leaders aren't great because they have power.
Leaders are great because they can empower others. Understanding this truth was one of his greatest victories. When he saw despair, he was able to inspire hope.
When he saw struggle, he was able to inspire success. Great leaders make us feel what they feel. They make us feel that we can do the unthinkable. That is why when we often think of leadership, we often think of it as adoring crowds, and we think leadership is an external quality.
But leadership has always been and will always be an internal quality. To lead outwardly, you first must learn to lead from within. People always ask me, how can I become a great leader?
They want to know the answers to the question of what, where, when, and even why should I be a great leader. But they're forgetting the most important question of all. Who?
Who am I? What do I stand for? What am I willing to sacrifice for?
When you are able to answer the question of who, it's the beginning of understanding self. And when you understand self, you develop for yourself your own personal GPS. One that will always direct you. Each and every one of us, every day, faces all kinds of storms of situations without a solid set of values. It will feel as if we are experiencing our challenges and our storms for the very first time.
As we try to keep up with the ever-evolving world around us, each and every one of us must develop an inner architecture. We must develop our own core inner compass. But how do we do that?
We must identify what are our values. We must learn what's important to us. And then we must take all that information and use it to serve others.
In the words of a great leader, Martin Luther King, he said, You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't even have to know Plato or Aristotle to serve. You don't even have to know...
Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. So what do you need? He went on to say, all you need to have is a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love. But some people still make the mistake of thinking leadership is being at the right place or the right time. It's about opportunity or lack of opportunity.
Leadership begins with knowing who you are. In a small village in Eastern Europe over a hundred years ago lived a renowned biblical rabbi. His name was Rabbi Zushia.
Rabbi Zushia was my great-great-grandfather. When Rabbi Zushia was on his deathbed, he was filled with great anxiety and great anguish. His students saw their beloved rabbi filled with such distress, they tried to calm him down.
And they said to him, Rabbi Zusha, you were almost as kind as Abraham and almost as wise as Moses. You have nothing to worry about. And Rabbi Zusha looked at his students and said, that will not matter. When I go to heaven, they're not going to say, Why wasn't I like Abraham or why wasn't I like Moses? They're going to ask me, why weren't you more like Rabbi Zusha?
At the end of the day, as leaders, we need to acknowledge who we are. That means we need to acknowledge the good and the bad. We need to acknowledge our successes, but also our shadows, because none of us are perfect. Therefore, we must, and I'll say it again, therefore we must resist the urge to disqualify people just because they are not perfect. Instead, we must revere those who have been able to persevere.
Because those who have been strong in a struggle can teach each one of us to be strong in a struggle. And those who have been calm in a storm can teach us to remain calm in a storm. And those who have been able to embrace their shadows will teach us to embrace all of who we are.
Today, we know more about every single person, including our leaders. We know their flaws, their mistakes, and their shadows. But the question is, how well do you know yourself? If you want to be a great leader, the transformation begins right now. It begins with making the commitment, listening to your heart, and understanding your soul.
But what does that mean? That means that we have to look at all our decisions that we've made in our lives, the important ones. Why did we make them? What values informed those decisions?
Knowing the answer to those questions is how we begin to serve ourselves. And when we begin to serve ourselves, only then will you be able to serve others. There are two kinds of people. Those who think they can be great leaders and those who think they can't.
And in both cases they are right. Some people still believe that when it comes to leadership, it's reserved for the selected privileged. They believe that, oh, she can be great, but I can't.
They believe he has influence, but I don't. I understand both their views, but it's not something that I endorse. This is what I believe. I believe that the most common way that we give away our power is thinking we don't have any.
That's what I believe. Leadership is my life's work and what I know can be summed up in this way. When it comes to leadership, leaders are not born, they are made. They are made like everything else is made through values, virtues, principles, and character.
That means we have to lead from within. When you lead from within, you will be able to stand alone when most people follow a crowd. When you lead from within, you will be able to do what is right, not what is easy.
When you lead from within, you will be able to stand truth to power. And when you lead from within, you will be able to empower others to stand in their truth and to speak to their power. But remember, leadership is not an abstract, obscure...
God-like skill that is only for the few of us know. Leadership exists in each and every one of you. That is why today the spotlights, these spotlights should not be on me on stage.
The spotlight should be on each and every one of you. Because a successful leader doesn't ask her audience to look at her alone on stage. A successful leader asks her audience to look within themselves.
Why? Because every single one of us has a quenching thirst to find our purpose, to make an impact, and to leave our mark. But how do you do that?
You do that by identifying your values, consulting your core inner compass, and following its direction. And when you do, others... will always follow you.
Thank you.