Working to Be a Leader

Dear Student, er Graduate:

Today you will be one of 3,000 students receiving a degree during the Baruch College Commencement Ceremonies at Madison Square Garden.  Baruch, the nation’s most diverse campus, is part of the City University of New York (CUNY), a group of 23 colleges and institutions serving 480,000 students in New York City.

As one of your teacher’s in the undergraduate Management Department at the Zicklin School of Business within Baruch, I congratulate you on your achievement and wish you the best as you begin a new phase in your life.

In your journey of working during the day, going to school for three or more hours of classes on two to four nights a week, then returning home to hug a child, kiss a spouse, embrace your parents, pet your dog, you’ve prepared yourself for the new leg of life’s journey as a college graduate.

Your hunger for knowledge, curiosity about how to reach your potential, willingness to push yourselves out of your comfort zones made my job as your instructor that much easier and a challenge.  A challenge that made me a smarter, wiser, and more informed person.

You are a future leader, someone who will have followers seeking answers, making requests, needing your time, being curious about their futures.

You are stepping into a world that needs your energy, your enthusiasm, your commitment to others that I saw you demonstrate in class.

We need you, I need you, the world needs you to value your degree, to make the most of the entry level jobs and administrative work you will do as you climb the career lattice, moving sideways and upward on your merits and demonstrated capacity for growth.

Future leader, I offer you two pieces of advice. 

#1:  Know yourself, what is meaningful for you, how you want to be known in the world.

#2:  Keep smiling through the tough times, the good times, the down times, and the up times because a smile is contagious and invites others to come into your world.

Thanks for letting me be part of your world.

Now, future leaders, go out and continue working to be the best possible leader you can be—we need you!

Best regards,

Prof. Henderson

Working to be a leader means that you are always seeking out information to inspire and motivate yourself and enhance your performance.

For me, working to be a leader includes reading a variety of publications such as newspapers and magazine plus e-newsletters from organizations that specialize in leadership and workplace issues.

My daily source of information is The New York Times.  Although I often print out an article, I’m most likely to tear out the piece so that I can read it again, place it in a pile on my desk so I can look up the research mentioned and use it to illustrate a point in my own compositions, file it in its appropriate folder that I’ll go to when asked to give a talk on ”cultural transformations of the workplace,” or leave it in my diary so that I am reminded to forward a link to this relevant article to a client.

This week’s clips were all from The New York Times.  Reading through the list, you might find an article that catches your interest as you, too, are working to be a leader.

Monday, May 4:  “Marilyn French, Novelist and Champion of Feminism, Dies at 79:  Gaining controversial stardom in 1977 with ‘The Women’s Room.’”  Note:  French’s book was instrumental in helping women of my age cope with a major cultural transformation as we moved from housewives to career women.

Tuesday, May 5- “Waist Deep in a Big Birthday Party,” Music Review by Jon Caramanica on the front page of the Arts Section and ”Still Singing” Appreciations by Lawrence Downes on the Editorial Page.  Note:  These two articles were used to gather specific facts for my previous blog on “Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday.”

Thursday, May 7- “Facebook Status?  In Town and Wondering What to Do: Social media offer benefits no travel agent, online tourist site or guidebook can match.” “All You Need to Know to Tweet on Twitter.”  Note:  On June 5, I’ll be co-presenting a program on social media and can use information in these articles as resources for those in attendance.

Saturday, May 9 – “At 8.9%, Unemployment Still Rises, but Pace Slows:  539,000 Jobs Were Lost in April, but Some Economists Say Worst May Be Over; ‘This isn’t recovery,’ an economist warns. ‘ It’s a slowing recession.’” ”Losing Job May Be Hazardous to Health.”  Sunday, May 10 – “More Than a Numbers Game:  Does being fired hurt any less if you’re just one of many?”  Note:  I continue to receive positive responses from  those who have read LTR’s level playing field special report, ”Temping with Tycoons,” my educational and inspirational story about how I used an investment bank as the business school I could afford in the recession of the early 1990’s.  Reading about the toll our economy is taking on individual careers reaffirms my commitment to offer my report free of charge and to continue to find ways to motivate and inspire others to stay engaged and optimistic through workshops, teleseminars, and organization-sponsored presentations.

Sunday, May 10 – “Backlash: Women Bullying Women.”  Note:  A very, very interesting article on many levels.  There is a growing awareness about the different ways that women lead.  I’ll use the information in the article in future presentations of the talk I’ve given to Women M.B.A.s and other college students on “The Fractured State of Women’s Leadership:  Why That’s a Good Thing.”

Enjoy a good week of reading and working to be a leader.

In honor of Mother’s Day, I feel moved to pass along one bit of advice that I got from my mother. This advice is relevant to girls/women and boys/men on a career search — or the ambitious employed who want to stay employed or get a promotion.

Although Mom died in 1968, I can, at times, still hear her voice reciting one of her many pieces of advice.

“Don’t be like all the other girls,” she’d say if I wanted a pair of white boots just like all the other girls were wearing in TEEN magazine.

“Don’t be like all the other girls,” she’d say then proceed to tell me about the twin girls who used to live down the street and who had their own way of dressing and being in the world.

“Don’t be like all the other girls,” she’d say on any occasion to encourage me to be who I was and not someone else.

Mom was right.  When I left for college, all I wanted to be was normal and like all the other girls.  A bit of a challenge to figure out what normal was since I wound up at the University of California at Berekley during the height of the Free Speech and Vietnam War protests.

As I’ve gotten older, however, and worked my way into leadership roles and developed a business providing leadership coaching to executives, I embrace the essence of her message.   Her message: to be fully present and let others know the unique qualities you possess and the great skills you bring to the table.

Today with the economy the worst since the Great Depression, women and men looking for work—or working to keep their jobs—have to stand out, to not be like all the other girls/boys, to demonstrate their unique brand of passion and how they will contribute their skills, abilities, and talents to the workplace.

Mom would like the person that I am today.  I’m not like all the other girls.  And not like all the other women I know.  I’m me.  And that’s a good thing.

Sit back and reflect on how you stand out with your own unique brand.

Then wish your mother and other nuturing women in your life a Happy Mother’s Day!

Thanks to a gift from a grateful coaching client, I attended Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Party at Madison Square Garden here in Manhattan on Sunday, May 3.  Officially called The Clearwater Concert, a Benefit for www.clearwater.org, it was a four-and-a-half hour celebration of the life of a leader not just in the field of folk music but in so many other areas, including the environment.  

A fierce liberal, Seeger’s dedication to his causes and to making the world a little better was celebrated in a moving tribute by over 40 musicians.

On Monday evening during the “Employee Development and Training Class” I teach at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, the nation’s most diverse campus, I did a survey of my students by asking a few questions about the performers who showed up to join in the birthday celebration.

“How many of you have heard of Pete Seeger?”  No hands went up.

“How many of you have heard of Joan Baez?”  No hands went up.

“How many of you have heard of Richie Havens?”  No hands went up.

“How many of you have heard of Bruce Springsteen?”  No one needed to raise their hand; they let me know with their facial expressions, “Who do you think we are?”

What was very clear from this survey was the cultural gap that existed.  It was also a perfect example of what can happen in a training class or the workplace.  We have of our own individual preferences for music, art, theatre, entertainment in general.  The lesson for the class of seniors majoring in Human Resources was clear:  don’t assume shared knowledge of students who attend a training class.

On Wednesday evening, I showed a You Tubeclip of Seeger performing with Springsteen at President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  “Oh, yes.  I know who he is now,” said one student and others agreed.  Another student said with a big smile on her face, “I saw the article in the newspaper about the concert.”

I wasn’t promoting Seeger or Clearwater’s efforts to clean up the Hudson River, although that’s a great idea which I support.  What I was doing as an educator was opening opportunities to bridge the gaps between our worlds.  It was also, I realized, a process, to share names of performers who were instrumental in developing my appreciation for their work.

In addition, it was the unstated wish that when my students’ music idols are 90, they who have aged along with their idols, can remember the moments when a song (”Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” written by Seeger and Joe Hickerson and sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary on a stage in San Francisco when I was in college), or a performer (Joan Baez coming out on stage at the Greek Theatre on the University of Berkeley campus when I was on a date with a handsome guy) impacted their lives.

A birthday party is a celebration.  A celebration of a life and a celebration of all the memories that have gone into creating that life.  And the chance to reflect on the memories that make up your own life.

Happy Birthday, Pete!

On a beautiful spring day, I gave myself the job to stay indoors and organize files that I had placed in a filing cabinet two years ago.  Along with the “Why am I keeping this?” questions I kept on asking myself, I discovered a few “I know why I kept this!” documents.

In the piles of paper within what I labeled my “Teaching and Consulting-early 1990’s” file folder, I uncovered a letter dated May 23, 1990.  When reading it, I began to cry.  I cried because I was once again reminded about why I teach.

The letter is from a student who had just completed my course in “Public Relations” in the Marketing Department of the Business & Communications Division at New York City Technical College, a two-year school that is part of the City University of New York. 

English majors put your red pen away and refrain from your comments on grammar.  Read the message that someone new to America felt at his moment of great accomplishment: graduation from an American college.  Also pay attention to the difference that one person in the role of a teacher can make in someone’s life.

My search has already begun on Facebook and LinkedIn to see if I can find the author of this letter.  Perhaps now, almost twenty years later, I can tell him that I was proud he was my student.

Dear Professor Henderson,

I’m very glad to receive a letter from school, saying that I’m going to graduate.  At this exciting moment, first of all, I would like to express my inner thanks to you.  Thank you for your teaching and helps to me.  I am in appreciation of all your advices.  This experience will never be forgotten in my life, because it’s an important experience in my life.  It’s just a milestone which will be recorded in my life history.  This unforgettable American college experience will affect me in every step I stride forward in the future.  I deeply believe that what I learned are useful and helpful to me.  I’m proud of being your student.

While in an out of the classes, we established a friendship between teacher and student.  This friendship will be extended to become our concern and help to teach other in the future.  That’s the most beautiful friendship in life.  It’s as great as the friendship of parents.  So, we are not only teacher and student, but also friends.

I came from Canton City, the largest city of southern China.  It’s a busy port and the capital city of Guandong Province.  It has over two thousand years in history.  Before I immigrated with my family in 1984, I was a senior student of the Traditional Chinese Medicine University of Canton.

America is a country which full of energy and vigor.  She possesses the modern high tech, science, advanced economic system, democracy government, and multilateral brilliant cultures from different races.  She is becoming more beautiful along with the development of the communication and understanding among people.  I wish I can always have your advice to guide my future career.

Thank you again!

So long!

Sincerely Yours,