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LEADERSHIP
To be effective, leaders need to know who they are
by Margot Cairnes
On 1 April Vittoria Coffee announced
to Australia through a series of advertisements that it
had discovered the white coffee bean. No longer did you
need to add milk or cream. Brew up your white coffee
from Vittoria's specially developed white beans.
Well, it was April Fools Day. But Les
Schirato, CEO of Cantorella Brothers, owners of Vittoria
Coffee, is no fool. The ads received coverage on every
Australian radio and TV channel. Discussion of the ads
made all the major Australian dailies. Exposure spread
to Canada, Hong Kong and Europe. The media monitor
reports came in a box, not an envelope. Vittoria Coffee
had never had such press.
The silly thing was that Les had
written that ad five years ago. For five years it sat in
his desk drawer. Whenever he brought it out someone told
him he couldn't use it. It would attract the attention
of the Trade Practices Commission. Vittoria was now the
leader in its niche; it couldn't do something as silly
as play an April Fool's joke.
"It took me several years of hard
work," Les told me, "to have the courage to listen to
myself and ignore the blockers."
It takes a strong sense of self to
listen to our own council. To take the risk of being
different. It takes strong character to follow our own
lead when everyone else tells us we are wrong. It takes
great judgment to take calculated risks.
But isn't this what leadership is all
about? Leadership is about being out in front. Being
ahead of the crowd. Leaders are different.
To be different and effective, leaders
need to know who they are; what they want and where they
are going; to have emotional strength to be in touch
with the people around them; the character to build and
maintain relationships; the judgment to take risks.
These are very human capacities.
Capacities forged by our personal beliefs, our
individual value systems, our life experiences and our
emotional health. All these things in turn rest on the
decisions we made when we were growing up. It was as our
brains were forming and maturing that most of the key
frameworks of our character and judgment were laid.
The old Jesuit dictum of "Give me a
boy until he is seven and I can shape him for life" is
very true. So a big part of developing character and
judgment - the key to good leadership - is raising
awareness as to early decisions that are still shaping
our thinking, acting and being.
Copyright
ã Margot
Cairnes
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