Читать книгу The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook - Paul Falavolito - Страница 9

I have always had heroes growing up. At a very early age, I can remember making a book in grade school for my mom where I drew a picture of Lynn Swann catching a football and wrote that I wanted to grow up and be just like him. Then it was NASA astronauts and various other sports figures like Mario Lemieux. But that was just hero worship, people or public figures that influenced me in some way. It wasn't until Steve Jobs walked out onto the stage with the first iPhone in 2007 that I really understood what it meant to study a leader. I was glued to the screen watching that Apple keynote, not just because some new tech was about to be bestowed upon us, but because I was more enamored by the person. Who was this larger-than-life person? I loved how he spoke, how he carried himself and was able to get his point across. And oh yeah, But there is one more thing. Brilliant, just brilliant.

I wasn't always comfortable talking in front of a few people, let alone large groups, and forget about teaching something to someone in that same format. I started small. At the time, I was very engaged in teaching CPR classes to a variety of fellow medical providers. I would teach the same cookie-cutter CPR class that everyone took, and mostly there were more people asleep than paying attention. They knew the material, but their job required them to take the same class every two years. I mean, what new thing was I going to teach them? I went back to the drawing board with the way I was going to present CPR to these people and the regular public. I needed to add a little bit of what I refer to as Pfav flair, and added a little bit of the science that is never included in the standard canned CPR class.

To this day, I have people who have taken CPR classes eight and ten times over come to me and tell me that was the most enjoyable and entertaining CPR class they have ever had. I teach now for a lot of big companies and corporations and have done public speaking and taught many other types of classes all over the country. I could make CPR instruction a full-time job if I wanted, but I would honestly miss everything else that I am involved with. I studied the leader who inspired me and went back and re-designed an entire new program that I deliver and it was successful.

Take a few minutes out of your day to find the leaders who inspire you. Study them, watch them, listen to them, and take the good qualities from them and add them into what makes you up as a leader. I still search out the leaders who inspire me. If they have written a book, I read it. If they are on YouTube, I watch them. Everyone has something to teach someone, whether they realize it directly or indirectly. Maybe the leader who inspires you the most is one of your parents. Maybe it is a current leader who you work for, or maybe it is someone who works on the floor above you. Whoever that person is, if you want to get better as a leader, you must study other leaders, for the good and the bad. It will go a long way in helping you truly develop yourself to be the very best leader you can be.