3 Tips on Leading From Where You Are
It’s graduation season and every year there are great commencement speeches. We’ve talked about this before on the show including speeches from Tom Hanks to Steve Jobs to name a few.
Today we’ll share another inspiring story told at a recent graduation.
Click the player to listen to this episode of The BIGG Success Show Podcast. Below is a summary of our discussion.
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Former Nebraska football coach, athletic director and Congressperson, Tom Osborne, gave the keynote address for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 2021 graduating class.
Osborne talked about Brook Berringer, the former Husker quarterback. Berringer took over the starting role in 1994 when his teammate, Tommie Frazier was injured. Berringer helped lead Nebraska to a national championship. The next season, he lost the starting job to Frazier.
Instead of being bitter, Osborne continued to prepare for every game, supported his teammates, visited schools and hospitals, signed autographs, and replied to letters from fans.
Berringer was killed in a plane crash shortly before he was to graduate. Five busloads of players traveled to Goodland, Kansas, for the funeral and that the roads were lined with people carrying signs and flowers.
Osborne said the reason is because he served and sacrificed, and as a result, made the greatest impact.
Berringer’s life is truly a testament to the human spirit and how even in what appears to be setbacks, we still can rise above!
He’s has been memorialized in a statue with Coach Osborne, which stands outside the football stadium. That’s in the image above.
this story got us thinking that leadership isn’t just about being the starting quarterback or the boss, it goes far beyond that.
Let’s go to The Professor’s Whiteboard for 3 tips on leading from where you are.
1. Leadership is action, not position.
Even though Brook Berringer was no longer the 1st string quarterback, he still acted like a leader.
There are leaders who aren’t truly leaders, and there are people who aren’t leaders who definitely are leaders. The main way to tell if you’re a leader or not, is if people notice you and follow you. It doesn’t have anything to do with your position in an organization o company.
2. Don’t underestimate the value of your position.
People remembered Berringer for the value he delivered, and the difference he made regardless of his position. Every position has the potential to make a BIGG impact. Markeing guru Scott Stratten illustrates this point in his book UnMarketing* as he tells the story of an encounter at a hotel with a carpet cleaner.
Hear to Scott tell us the story starting at 6:00. Click the player above to listen.
3. Always start from a position of service.
It wasn’t about football. It was about caring for, supporting, and respecting people. Business is a social science…we forget this. First and foremost, business is about serving people. If you serve a lot of people well, you’re going to do well. But you have meet a want or a need, and if you focus on that the money will follow.
Service is the richest position of all. It leads to BIGG success!
George “The Professor” & Mary-Lynn
Co-Founders, BIGG Success
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