Leadership is About Doing

There is a rich literature on leadership, with as many theories on leadership as there are authors of books and articles. This blog, though, is not about theory.  It is about doing.   Yogi Berra is quoted as having said, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.  In practice there is.”  In other words, you have to step on the field and play the game.

Yogi Berra also said, “You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run.  If you got the timing, it’ll go.”  I’m no Yogi Berra, but during my 40+ year career I learned that if you got the timing, you might hit some home runs.  But you can also hit a lot of singles and doubles, and even the occasional triple.  Not as flashy, but just as effective.  After all, the goal is to win the game.  It doesn’t matter how you score the runs.  I also came to appreciate that in the end, more runs are scored on base hits than on homers.

I experienced all this on the field, not from the sidelines. You can’t learn the fine points of the game (or even the basics) from the sidelines.  You can’t lead from there, either.  Leaders are those who step on the field and play the game.  Leaders aren’t made.  They just are.  Leadership emerges from natural ability and experience.  The key to leadership for me was to take what I observed and endured and make it mine.  I never aspired to be like any leaders I worked with.  I aspired to take everything—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and use it to shape my own style.

No one ever accused me of being a flashy leader. But my team at University of Phoenix undeniably changed the face of American higher education.  In so doing we set precedents and broke a lot of new ground (and a few rules). We pioneered elements of distance education that are commonplace today. There was no theory or template to follow. We stepped onto the field every day and took our swings. We learned from our successes and failures and refined our game.  Our distinctive perspective on higher education and the world in general—including leadership-- has undoubtedly been shaped by all this. 









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