Ten Ways of Looking at Leadership
Alan Khazei is the co-founder of City Year, one of the country’s most influential community-service organizations, and the inspiration for President Clinton’s Americorps. Alan is also widely regarded as one of the most important young leaders in the country. When Alan visited my class just before the end of the semester, one of the students asked him if he could sum up his leadership experiences in the form of advice for the class. Like some other high-profile leaders we know (see “How to Create a Monster(.com),” Jan 14 posting), Alan had his top 10 list for would-be leaders ready:
1. Find a partner, then build a team. Nobody changes the world by himself
2. “Every battle is won or lost before it is fought,” wrote Sun Tzu [in “The Art of War”]. Preparation is everything. Figure out where you want to be and then work backwards
3. Identify your core values and principles and stick to them. Be flexible about everything else, but not those
4. Become an expert in your field and learn from others
5. Remember that there is a significant gap between ideas and implementation
6. Set achievable goals at the beginning, and then achieve or exceed them
7. Leverage opportunity, no matter how small it might appear at first
8. Commit totally to your project. If you’re committed, then people will get behind you. If you commit to something and stay on that path, guardian angels will show up
9. Anybody can do this if you have a passion for something. Entrepreneurship is funny–it’s one of those things you don’t always know you want to be. Often you get there by following your bliss and doing what makes you happy
10. Don’t be afraid to take risks
