“你可能累了. 不会放弃. 你可能会崩溃. 不会放弃. 你可能会感到沮丧. 不会放弃.”
That was the strong message delivered Thursday night by author Dan Olowabi, the keynote speaker for the Heidelberg 商学院’ annual Lessons in 领导 event.
The executive director of Branches Worldwide, Dan is the author of Amazon's #1 new release, Authentic 领导: How to Lead with Nothing to Hide, 无需证明 & 没有什么可失去的. Through his inspiring storytelling, he encouraged more than 200 students in Wickham Great Hall to “fix their focus” so they too can master the timeless principles of leadership and become resilient and confident.
通过他的工作, Dan has met with high-level leaders across the globe who paint the perfect picture, “但在, 他们尖叫.” Their world may feel like it’s crumbling around them and they feel the temptation to quit.
“真正的领导.'
“你感觉到了. 我感觉到了. But the differentiator among great leaders is that they recognize this feeling and know what to do with it,丹说, 退休牧师.
The big question is this: What do you do when you feel that temptation to quit? 当你感到不安? The answers to those questions are critical to successful leadership.
Dan used a quote from the late Maya Angelou to illustrate his point: Angelou wrote, “你可能会遭遇许多失败, 但你不能被打败. It may be necessary to encounter the defeats, 这样你才能知道自己是谁, 你可以从中崛起, 你怎么还能走出来.”
“How you see the broader perspective makes all the difference in your life. … It’s less about the obstacles in front of you and more about how you deal with them.”
Being authentic is about understanding and leading yourself so you can understand and lead others. The key, according to Dan, is “fixing your focus” and clarifying your identity. There are two possible directions you could go.
“The impulse is to look for a way out when you should be looking for a way through,他说.
The question is not “if” but “how.” And when the temptation to quit surfaces, Dan suggests focusing on two things: rest and relationships.
He told the students to visualize their lives like a tank with a fill function and a drain function. “You need to know the things that fill you and the things that drain you,他说, “and focus on the things that fill you.”
在生意旺季, 他补充说, it’s easy to buckle down on the draining things, 这应该引起警惕. But when you get to the point where you feel tired and ready to walk away, “What you need is rest.”
“当我不知所措的时候, 我休息了很长时间,丹分享道, “because if I don’t fill myself up, 我要辞职了.”
Dan recalled a time when he nearly quit after he learned that he did not pass his final test to receive his master’s degree. 而是去看他妈妈, a deaf woman who immigrated from Nigeria to pursue a college education in the U.S.他改变了看法。. It took his mom two years until someone finally listened to her story and helped her get that scholarship, but she ultimately reached her goal. 当她这么做的时候, she took a photo of herself in her cap and gown with her young son – Dan – standing next to her.
“She took that picture next to me because she knew there would be a day when I’d want to quit and she wanted to make sure I’d have a story of not quitting,丹说.
“所以我没有.” The full-circle moment came when Dan finally received his master’s degree and took a similar photo in his cap and gown with his mom on one side and his young daughter next to him on the other side.
People in our lives depend on us, he said. “So you’ve got to have a story years from now that says, ‘Things were hard. 一切都对我不利. I was tired and ready to walk away. 但我没有. I stuck with it and things got better. … And when you’re ready to quit, remember the relationships in your life.”
When students look back on the day they wanted to quit but didn’t, “It’ll be the season you learned who you are.”