When I speak publically, my focus is on sharing stories that I hope highlight how the biggest determinants of what people think of us, and our organizations, are not the things on which we focus the most time and money.

I’ve discovered that it is not the goals we set, or even the goals we reach that most significantly shape peoples’ impressions of us. Rather, it’s how we choose to go about accomplishing our goals on an everyday basis that plays the most significant role in shaping whether or not we are perceived as leaders.

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In a previous article, I mentioned what I feel is one of the most prevalent and restrictive of these limiting words: “just”.

Organizations are filled with “I’m just a…” employees. “I’m just a receptionist”; “I’m just a salesperson”; “I’m just middle management”. 

It’s likely that each one of us has said something similar about ourselves, or at the very least, what we were attempting to do: “I’m just trying to get to the end of this project”; “we just have to figure out a way to deal with this”.

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I want to start just by asking everyone in the audience a question: How many of you are completely comfortable calling yourselves a leader?

See, I've asked that question all the way across the country, and everywhere I ask it, no matter where, there's always a huge portion of the audience that won't put up their hand. And I've come to realize that we have made leadership into something bigger than us. We've made it into something beyond us. And I worry sometimes that we spend so much time celebrating amazing things that hardly anybody can do that we've convinced ourselves that those are the only things worth celebrating, and we start to devalue the things that we can do every day.

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"Sir," she said shyly, "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"What exactly is it you don't understand?" I asked.

"I'm afraid it's leadership sir."

"Well," I said with a small smile, "I wouldn't worry too much about that - we have all semester to explore what leadership means."

She shook her head.

"That's just it sir. I understood leadership before I came today, and now I'm afraid I don't."

I've come to hope that many people walk out of my workshops feeling that is the case, but at the time, I was quite upset as someone endeavouring to be an educator.

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As I've grown older, my teachers have become more plentiful but often harder to spot. No one who’s been to a conference or attended a meeting can deny that we’re still treated to those moments when someone stands and bestows upon themselves the role of “educator”.  Somewhere along the way however, it became the “accidental teachers” in my life who started delivering the most significant lessons. These accidental teachers have taken many forms: some have been friends of 15 years, while others, like the man whose story I tell today, crossed paths with me for only a few hours.

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And make no mistake: our lives are filled with extraordinary days. I’ve found that extraordinary days can be positive—for instance when you achieve something you’ve worked hard for, are recognized for your hard work, or reach a personal or professional milestone.

Of course, extraordinary days can also be negative: when you fail at something as an individual or as an organization; when you don’t get that something you thought you had earned, or when you hurt someone that you care about.

However, in life and leadership, I think it’s wise to remember that the extraordinary days in our lives are always outnumbered by the “every days”, and it is in those every days that I think the nature and frequency of our extraordinary days are determined.

I believe that it is in those every days that our true character and the character of our teams are demonstrated, and I believe it is in the every days that long term success is fostered or stifled.

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Revolution has also sprung from innovation: new knowledge and tools making possible that which never was before. With the steam engine came the industrial revolution; the advent of contraception was a major part of the sexual revolution; and the silicon chip made possible an information age that shapes our lives in ways unimaginable even 15 years ago.

Driving revolution is the idea that at its end something new will emerge: a new social structure, new forms of understanding, and in many cases, an entirely new country. The shoving off of a dictator has often given millions of people opportunities for freedom and happiness – and for new paths to fulfillment - that could not even have been considered before.

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