Monday, November 28, 2016

Leadership Quote - Margaret Thatcher

Last week was Thanksgiving in the United States and I didn't post last Thursday. My apologies to my loyal readers. Look out for a post tomorrow that should have ran on Thursday. 

On to this week's quote of the week:


For those that don't know, Margaret Thatcher was the British Prime Minister from 1979 until 1990, who was known for her uncompromising politics and leadership style. A Soviet journalist (which likely means that the Soviet Union at least agreed with this) dubbed her the "Iron Lady."

More than 20 years ago Margaret Thatcher said the words above. This was before colleges created "safe spaces" for people who felt offended, and the world of government fell to attacks and labels rather than arguments and reasoning. Today, people live in bubbles of like-minded people (just look at the discussion of the US election results) and people are more concerned about not feeling offended (or not offending anyone) than about intelligent, reasoned discussion.

As a leader, your role is to help people get through the tough times, the tough discussions. If there were no tough discussions, there would be no need for leaders. Open the doors for conversation, invite people to share their opinions, and then (to provide another quote) look to Habit 5 of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:  "Seek first to understand, then be understood."

In case anyone was wondering, this is my youngest son. He and his brother were playing in the mud of our backyard one spring day and my wife Erin wanted to take pictures. The oldest was hamming it up for the camera, but our youngest didn't want to get his picture taken. My wife took the picture anyway and this is now one of her favorite pictures. 

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