The purpose of the Leadership Profile series isn’t to point out all the heroic accomplishments of each leader. There are plenty of history books for that. The purpose is to highlight key actions each leader took that all of us can emulate. Some leaders have heroic moments that thrust them into the spotlight. Many more simply do the next right thing over a long period of time.

As the first president of the United States, George Washington was a hero in every sense of the word. But he started where you and I start: with challenging situations in the moment. Let’s take a look at some of the things that set Washington up for success.

Earned His Stripes

George Washington is most recognized for being the United States’ founding president. But he started out as a surveyor and later a soldier. His expertise in the French and Indian War earned him the Commander-in-Chief role during the Revolutionary War against the British world power more than twenty years later. If Washington hadn’t been faithful in his responsibilities as an adjutant, he would have never become Commander-in-Chief.

I once heard a consulting executive share a story that a new college hire had recently told him in a state of excitement that he was looking for a project where he could coach CEOs. It was laughable, because the new analyst hadn’t done a single thing yet. Even George Washington had to prove himself.

Gained Commitment Despite Adversity

One of Washington’s strongest points was his ability to unite groups of people to a common cause. After the United States won the Revolutionary War, Washington’s leadership proved fit to unite a fragile nation. But this was the result of many decades of practice recruiting military officers, liaising with foreign dignitaries, coordinating with Congress and administrating logistics.

Perhaps the greatest test came during the winter of 1777 in Valley Forge where Washington’s men were severely under-dressed, underpaid and suffered more casualties to disease than to combat. But Washington was able to not just gain but keep their willing cooperation.

You and I aren’t likely to face the adversity Washington’s men faced, but we’ll no doubt incur some challenges on our journey. Washington’s authority wasn’t enough to keep his men pressing on. His influence was. When your commanding presence fails, use your diplomacy skills to remind everyone why they got started in the first place.

Understood Human Nature

Perhaps Washington’s dealings with so many of the VIPs of his era gave him particular insight into the motivations and failings of human nature. At any rate, he was ideologically opposed to aristocracy and committed to the idea of a republic.

Washington would have agreed with Lord Acton’s famous quote, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

It’s one thing to believe the best about people, but another thing to think critically about human systems. Which systems (whether in government, business or non-profit) can best survive the flaws of human nature? That’s one question every leader must consider.

Demonstrated Unprecedented Self-Restraint

Perhaps the crowning act of Washington’s life came in 1783 when he resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief when he could have easily leveraged his military prowess into an emperorship. In fact, it stunned the British so much that King George III called Washington, “the greatest character of the age.” Instead Washington retired and returned home, only to later be elected the first president of the first free nation on earth. Even in presidency he was well aware that everything he did set precedent for the rest to follow.

You and I will probably never have the chance to rule a nation, but we will have the chance to rule something and someone. When the opportunity presents itself, the key question is: are we working to serve ourselves or to serve others?

Washington’s legacy is marked by personal sacrifice en lieu of public victories. Let’s follow suite.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

I can’t think of a better example to share than this month’s leadership profile Malala Yousafzai.

I first heard of Malala when it was reported the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat Valley had attempted to assassinate the then 15 year-old girl on her way home from school, shooting her in the face at point blank range in October, 2012. Her only “crime” was standing up and speaking out for the education rights of girls in the region. After an amazing recovery in Birmingham, England, Malala slowly but surely redoubled her efforts to speak out on behalf of education equality. Her book I Am Malala was released one year after her assassination attempt and she was the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala’s media story has yet to peak, but I believe there are several takeaways from a leadership front as well, particularly for young leaders. Here they are:

Take Intiative

If there’s one thing young leaders (or any of us) need to hear, it’s this: you are never to unqualified to set a good example. Unfortunately, age can be one of the biggest excuses for not taking initiative when the opportunity arises. Encouraged by her father when she was 11 years old, Malala began writing a blog for the BBC under a pseudonym describing her experience under Taliban occupation. But it wasn’t because she was the most qualified. She was simply the only one willing to do it after the 15 year-old who had been selected backed out at the last minute.

Taking initiative isn’t about position or authority or attempting to make huge, sweeping changes. It’s about doing what we can in the circumstances we’re in.

Take Courage

If you’re advocating for any kind of change at all, you WILL face opposition at some point. This was certainly the case with Malala. Because she did so well with her BBC blog, additional media opportunities came her way. Eventually, the Taliban figured out who she was an issued threats against her and her family.

When opposition comes, it can often seem perfectly reasonable to quit. Many leaders do. Some are justified, but for the ones who stick with it, opposition is essentially a gut check. How much are they willing to put on the line? How important is the vision they are trying to accomplish? What is it worth?

For Malala, opposition simply added fuel to her efforts. The Taliban threats made it obvious she was making a difference. As Dale Carnegie says, criticism is often a disguised compliment. You don’t get it unless you are doing something noteworthy.

Serve Your Purpose

One of the questions author Mark Miller asks is this: are you a serving leader or a self-serving leader? In other words, are you in it for others or only yourself? I’ll admit this is always a tough question for me because I have so many personal and professional goals. Malala was the same way. Education was very personal for her and she worked extremely hard to win top honors as a child. But through her work as an education advocate, it became clear to her that education shouldn’t be a privilege, it should be a universal right. Her efforts (and circumstances) led to the passage of Pakistan’s first Right to Education Bill.

There comes a time when serving our purpose dwarfs the importance of self-promotion. To press that point, I’d like to share Malala’s own thoughts in this brief clip from her recent interview with Jon Stewart. When it became apparent Malala was literally fighting for everyone – even the very people who had tried to kill her – it left me just as speechless as it did Stewart.

You don’t need to be old enough or important enough to make a difference. Malala didn’t set out to become a revolutionary. She simply did the next right thing and didn’t give up, despite the pressure. You and I can do this too, right where we stand. Let’s join in.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

The greatest part of Welch’s contribution may be in the form of giving back – by sharing his knowledge of business and management with all sorts of audience and through various speaking engagements and books he’s written in his retirement. Here’s a snip-it of what I picked up.

Image by Joshua Zumbrun

Leadership is a “People” Job

Welch bottomlined the need for people development at Leadercast by stating that “If you don’t like people, leadership stinks!” At GE, Welch calculated that 70% of his job was developing people, contrary to the belief some managers hold that it comes after regular job duties. This means looking for teachable moments throughout your day as you interact with your team. Additionally, in his book Winning, Welch harps on the necessity of candor, not only when it comes to business decisions, but personnel reviews as well. “You have no right calling yourself a leader if people don’t know where they stand with you,” Welch says.

Self-Confidence is a Must

Not only does business tend to favor the “energetic and extroverted,” as Welch acknowledges, so does society in general. But that doesn’t mean shy and introverted (albeit skilled) people lack the opportunity to succeed. The key is self-confidence. A person with self-confidence trusts his gut. She speaks up in meetings when something needs to be said (even if it’s unpopular). He knows how to get the most from his talents and takes appropriate risks in the face of uncertainty. Ultimately, it’s behavior and results, not personality, that get rewarded.

The additional point Welch stresses for leaders is their responsibility to develop self-confidence among their people. Don’t wait for them to pick it up on their own. “Pump them full of it,” he says.

Know When to Quit

One decision Welch is famous for is setting the directive that each GE business would be #1 or #2 in its industry or else get out altogether. The important element in this directive was clarity. No one needed to guess whether a business should stay open or not. They knew that if it was #3 or lower, the decision had already been made. Of course there was occasional criticism, but Welch highlighted that most leaders don’t like to let go because they prefer to run big things. Pruning reduces the portfolio, which hurts when the mindset is that bigger is always better. But not only that, when a business is sold from a weak position to someone who is in a strong position, it’s really a huge favor for everyone.

Not only should leaders know when to quit on a business, Welch encouraged them to have the self-confidence to quit their jobs if the organization was not providing enough developmental opportunities for them. Leaders owe it to themselves and it keeps the organization accountable.

Welch certainly made a lasting impression on business not just in American but all over the world. If you’d like to learn more of his ideas about leadership philosophy, managing a company, managing competition or managing your career, I suggest you pick up a copy of Winning for yourself. I’m sure glad I did!

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

Five short years later, she was called on by authorities as an expert in the initial custody process following the raid of the YFZ Ranch in Texas, which was being run by her ex-husband. The raid proved pivotal in landing the extremist sect’s leader Warren Jeffs in prison with a life sentence on multiple child sexual assault convictions.

I read Jessop’s New York Times bestseller Escape after it had just been released in 2007 as I was training for an overseas deployment to Iraq with the U.S. Army. I’m not sure what prompted me to read her story – or how I even heard about it – but I immediately thought she deserved to win some kind of Outstanding Person of the Year award and wished I could tell her as much. Jessop doesn’t lead a nation, a sports club or a Fortune 500 company, but she embodies some of the most important leadership attributes you or I could ever hope to learn.

Sometimes You Have to Lead By Yourself

Leadership can be a lonely place, but most of us have the benefit of resources, training and a leadership community to support us. But sometimes, in Jessop’s case for instance, we’re standing alone. It’s not pretty and it’s not fair, but it’s reality. How do you react when you’re responsible but isolated? The paralysis of uncertainty and temptation to second-guess can be overwhelming. But the risks of not acting, even with limited information and confidence, can have dire effects. In Jessop’s case, had she lingered, she knew she would have risked having her underage daughters forced into marriage with a FLDS man several decades her senior – as well as risked having her family move to the compound in Texas where anything short of a raid would make it impossible to escape. Being alone doesn’t take away the responsibility to lead well.

Courage Can Take Place in a Single Moment

I’ve written before that the type of courage leaders ought to aspire to includes making responsible decisions (instead of passing them on to others), accepting responsibility and initiating difficult conversations. It’s the opposite of waiting until a fire needs to be put out. It’s a constant and proactive practice. But sometimes, as in Jessop’s case, the situation calls for a sudden act of undeterred bravery. Jessop said in her own words that “at some point nearly everyone, no matter what [their] situation, has to face change that is terrifying and overwhelming.”

In corporate leadership development, we try to build leaders who lead by design and not by demand. In other words, they don’t wait till a fire starts to come to the rescue. In reality, leaders need the courage to do the right thing, no matter how much time they have available.

The Hardest Battle is the One Against Ideology

If there’s one thing we don’t have any control over, it’s the circumstances of our birth: where, when and to whom. That means we likely grew up believing most of the things that were intentionally or unintentionally taught around us. Hopefully along the way, we developed the critical thinking skills to evaluate our own ideology.

This is the reason Jessop’s escape was so incredible. By her admission, she grew up in a closed system which taught their leader had divine and sole inspiration from God and their only means of salvation was to obey their every whim. They were taught that women were essentially property, the outside world was only evil and it was forbidden to use the word “fun” or possess anything colored red. It wasn’t until she accepted that hell (according to FLDS doctrine) would be a better option than the life she and her children were living that she had the courage to make an exodus.

Having a doctrine (a “set of principles or beliefs”) is a good thing. Each military branches has one. The FBI has one (I helped build the “indoctrination” program). Your organization hopefully has a doctrine of some sort and your religion doubtless has many. What’s dangerous is being unaware of what the doctrine is, what indoctrination methods are being used, and not evaluating the merits. If you want to leave one ideology, you need another one to take its place. Otherwise, you will simply return to the old or succumb to disillusionment.

Carolyn Jessop’s story underscores the fact that you don’t need to be “special” to be a leader. You don’t need to be the next Winston Churchill, Vince Lombardi or Jack Welch. No matter who you are, you will encounter a leadership challenge at some point. Following Jessop’s example isn’t easy. But if you do, you’re sure to come out on top.

Carolyn Jessop is the author of Escape and Triumph and has appeared on various media outlets, including CNN and Oprah and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Additionally, in 2008 Katherine Heigl contracted the rights to produce and star in a movie based on her story.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

But it wasn’t enough to just build a business based off crazy basketball shots. Cory Cotton took things a step further by putting the group’s contagious philosophy on basketball – and life – into a book: Go Big: Make Your Shot Count in the Connected World. In it, Cotton shares not only how the group capitalized on social media to become YouTube’s 3rd largest sports channel, but also how the average person can go big in their own life. Here are a handful of Cotton’s (and Dude Perfect’s) principles for going big:

Get Excited

When it comes to creating a movement, starting a business, getting a job or engaging in any kind of activity, Cotton says that it all starts with excitement. If you aren’t genuinely excited about what you’re doing, then you’re probably doing the wrong thing. It may sound cliche coming from a group of guys who shoot baskets for a living (actually that’s just a small part of it at this point), but the principle holds true. If you aren’t excited to up in the morning to get to work on whatever it is you do, there’s no reason anyone else should be excited about following you, either on YouTube, Twitter or in real-life.

Have Relentless Integrity

According to Cotton, integrity is one of those ideals that is noble in theory but extremely inconvenient in practice. His analogy is patriotism. It’s a lot easier on Independence Day than on Tax Day. But if you compromise once, not only will you be tempted to compromise again, you’ll ruin your brand promise to the public. For Dude Perfect, this meant making a decision early on to never post a video of a trick shot that wasn’t 100% legitimate, even though it would be much easier to doctor the videography than to spend the extra time working.

Blink Later

Cotton and the rest of the Dude Perfect crew are barely removed from college, yet they’ve collaborated on projects with many Fortune 500 brands. With the speed of technology, it’s possible to “go viral” literally overnight. In fact, at one point Dude Perfect picked up over 2 million views in two hours when Yahoo! featured a video on their home page. When success hits you full force, you have to be able to make certain decisions on the run in order to capitalize before the window of opportunity closes. Many times, this means making pre-decisions about who you are and what is most important, and then using those decisions to navigate the uncertainty when things speed up. It may feel uncomfortable, but some things simply can’t be prepared for in advance.

Inspire Others

In the end, Cotton says that money, fame and recognition aren’t enough. They never are, no matter the dream. Do something that makes a difference for other people. Use your platform and your niche to benefit others. Since Dude Perfect are the self-proclaimed Ambassadors of Fun, inspiring others means adding an element of fun to certain non-profits who provide clean water and necessities to under privileged kids around the world. Inspiring others shouldn’t be a separate element of your work. It will mean so much more if it relates directly to your niche.

If you want to know more about Dude Perfect, I’d definitely recommend Cotton’s book Go Big. But don’t start there. Start on YouTube with one of their videos, such as this one:

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

In between, George Washington Carver accomplished incredible feats as a scientist, educator and inventor – and he raised the bar when it comes to leadership.

Here are a few of the leadership lessons we can take from George Washington Carver.

Lifelong Learning

As unfortunate as the circumstances surrounding his birth had been, Carver benefited from the influence of several key people in his life when it came to education. The first were his owners, Moses and Susan Carver, who ransomed George from slave raiders and raised him as their son after slavery was abolished. Susan taught George to read and write. George later moved to live with several sets of foster parents in areas with learning opportunities. He eventually graduated from high school and earned a bachelor and masters degree from Iowa State. From there, Carver joined the Tuskegee Institute Agriculture Department at the request of Booker T. Washington as an educator and researcher for 47 years.

Carver once said that, “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of opportunity,” and it proved true in his life.

Persistence

As high profile as his work became – Carver invented over 300 uses for the peanut and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes – the majority of his accomplishments were a result of conquering the mundane. Each invention came after hours of nature walks, observation and scientific testing in his laboratory. It wasn’t until Carver broke through that he was able to help create new industries based off products he helped to invent – all of which benefited farmer rotating crops as well as the public in general. In fact, Carver’s testimony before Congress as an expert witness resulted in a tariff on imported peanuts and the boom of the industry.

When it came to success, Carver didn’t cite ingenuity, although was certainly blessed with it. Instead, he remarked that, “99% of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

Carver also added that,  “when you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” And that was certainly the case.

Virtue

Carver was known as a man of faith and advocated that belief in both God and science were compatible. Carver frequently acknowledged that God guided and inspired his work, including a testimony in which Carver claimed that God refused to reveal the secrets of the universe and of humankind, but relented when Carver asked the secrets of the peanut.

As impressive as Carver’s faith was his concern for the character development of his students, whom he regularly taught his eight cardinal virtues:

• Be clean both inside and out.
• Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor.
• Lose, if need be, without squealing.
• Win without bragging.
• Always be considerate of women, children, and older people.
• Be too brave to lie.
• Be too generous to cheat.
• Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.

I think we can all agree that we need more men and women like George Washington Carver – the kind of people that overcome adversity, focus on the task at hand (no matter how large or small) and positively influence the next generation. Not everyone is blessed with the genius Carver had, but each of us can follow the example he set.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

There is no greater leadership impact than sacrificing for others. So far in this Leadership Profile series, we’ve looked at several thought leaders, a business leader and a football coach. They taught us how to think and to believe in ourselves. Today we’ll focus on a man who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of an entire nation.

Who was Ninoy Aquino?

Ninoy Aquino was born in 1932 to a politically astute Filipino family. He quickly followed suit and was elected as a mayor at age 22, governor at age 29, and senator at age 34, the youngest in the country’s history. In his first year as a senator, Aquino wasted little time in becoming one  of the current president Ferdinand Marcos’ most vocal opponents, declaring that Marcos was preparing to establish “a garrison state.” Following a controversial bombing, Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and Aquino was one of the first political opponents to be arrested on trumped-up charges of murder, illegal possession of firearms and subversion. Aquino spent the next 7 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement. Not even a 40 day hunger strike and mounting international pressure could overturn his sentence to death by execution. Before the sentence could be carried out, however, Aquino suffered two separate heart attacks and was eventually exiled in 1980 and traveled to the U.S. for treatment.

The Plan to Return

Aquino and his family always knew his time in the U.S. would be temporary. As a charismatic leader an proponent of democracy, he felt responsible to work against Marcos’ dictatorship. Without him, the Filipino citizens might become resigned to their fate. Aquino also warned that if democracy was not returned to the people, Marcos’ regime would eventually be overthrown by extremists, making the return impossible. Thus he spent much of his time in the U.S. on tour speaking out against the regime and challenging Marcos to consider his rationale without violent confrontation. In 1983, Marcos’ own waning health made it imperative for a solution to be reached and Aquino decided it was time to return. Marcos warned Aquino to stay out of politics and even U.S. supporters maintained that he could do more good in exile. But Aquino replied that “the Filipino is worth dying for” and that he would be willing to suffer any consequences upon returning.

The Assassination

In an internationally publicized chain of events, Aquino boarded a one-way flight to Manila on August 21, 1983. He had warned reporters in the days leading up to and even on his flight that it was highly probable he would be assassinated upon entering the country. Even though he wore a bullet proof vest, he assessed his chances of surviving were 10%.

True to his assessment, Aquino was escorted from the grounded plan by Marcos’ armed guards via a back exit and shot in the back of the head by an alleged assassin by the time he reached the bottom of the stairs. His body was immediately thrown into a van which fled the scene. Aquino was pronounced dead within minutes and just four hours later, President Marcos determined that an independent communist had assassinated Aquino and declared the case closed.

The Aftermath

As you might imagine, no one in the Philippines believed the Marcos administration was innocent of Aquino’s death. The event added instant energy to the opposition. Aquino’s family returned to the Philippines soon after and his widow Maria Corazon became the new face of the movement. Facing attempted impeachment, Marcos called for a snap election in 1985 and Corazon was eventually declared the winner of the fiercely disputed election to became the first woman president in all of Asia. Corazon moved quickly to oversee the creation of a new constitution that limited the powers of the presidential office. She also championed civil rights and economic development. Corazon served until 1992. Aquino’s son Benigno Aquino, III is the current president of the Philippines.

Aquino has been referred to as the “greatest president the Philippines never had.” If not for his sacrificial return to his beleaguered homeland, things almost assuredly would have turned out much differently. In fact, if you fly into Manila today, you will land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

In contrast to Aquino, Ferdinand Marcos’ legacy is marred by massive corruption, political repression and human rights violations. It was later discovered that in his two decades in office, Marcos moved billions of dollars of embezzled funds offshore – debts the current administration is still paying interest on today.

Ninoy Aquino’s story is an incredible reminder that you cannot lead a cause independent of people.

What cause do you live for? Who do you consider worth dying for?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

Who is Dick Burton?

You probably don’t know Dick Burton. The highest level of competition he ever faced as a football player was NCAA D-II at William Jewell College in Liberty, MO. To my knowledge, he’s never been featured on any televised games either as a player or coach. Instead of sticking with one school for life, he’s coached several different programs over his 40 year football career. In fact, Coach has never been on a full-time coaching staff. He’s worked as a full-time businessman to support his family of a wife and ten children (including eight football playing sons) and squeezed in his head coaching duties on the side.

What Can We Learn From Dick Burton

It’s been well over a decade since I played my last football game. But the lessons I learned from Coach continue to this day. Here is a small sample that I’d like to share with you.

There is a Right Way to Do Business. One of the first things all my teammates learned from Coach is there is a right way to do things and a wrong way. There was a right way to play the game, face an opponent, run on and off the football field, and even put your uniform on. I still remember the day Coach sent a car full of our best players home from practice because they didn’t show up on Lombardi time (15 minutes early) as a way to instill discipline for the rest of us. Ultimately, our actions either honor or dishonor ourselves, teammates, families, God, profession, sport, and even the field itself.

Life is a Collision Sport. Finally getting to play tackle football for the first time in high school was a pretty jarring experience to say the least. But Coach reminded us early on that our greatest competition wasn’t the fellow on the other side of the ball. It was our own mothers, who didn’t want their sons engaged in such a rough activity. “Dancing is a contact sport,” Coach used to say. “Football is a collision sport.” Because of that, Coach knew making things easy on the practice field would leave us unprepared, both for Friday nights and for real life.

Fear is Your Greatest Enemy. If there was one thing my teammates and I heard more than anything else, it was that “God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” For Coach, football was the perfect venue to learn to overcome fear. On the occasional Friday nights we let intimidation get the better of us (even when playing an over-matched opponent), Coach wouldn’t be able to sleep over the weekend. At Monday’s practice, he’d voice his disappointment not at our lack of victory but for not giving it our best like we’d been taught. Coach knew that fear wouldn’t disappear after high school so the training we received on the field was crucial to leading successful adult lives where many of my teammates now work as military officers, businessmen, musicians, teachers, and coaches themselves.

The Little Things Matter. I’ll never forget one practice my senior year. I was absentmindedly running through a routine drill, somehow oblivious to the fact that Coach had been harping on discipline all practice. Apparently my lack of effort was the straw that broke Coach’s back and he let me know it immediately. The public dressing down was even worse considering my status as a senior team captain. For Coach, it didn’t matter who you were or what your record said, you never became too big for the little things.

Coaching Never Ends. I don’t keep in touch with all of my coaches from my younger years. But I do keep in touch with a few. Just recently Coach Burton let me know he was coming to town so we got together for dinner. We talked about business, family, plans, etc. Not only had coach been further down the road in football when I was a player, he was still further along in life and provided some timely pointers and encouragement. I realized then that even though players eventually graduate from the team, true coaching never ends.

I know not everyone had the benefits of a great coach like I did. But most people can point to a single coach, teacher, or mentor who made a significant difference in their life.

Who inspired you?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

What we learned on our trip still influences how I think about leadership. But for now, I’d like to share a few notes about the man who invented the original chicken sandwich.

Who Was Truett Cathy?

Cathy was born in Eatonton, Georgia in 1921, which meant he grew up during the Great Depression. One of seven children, Cathy began selling Coca-Colas at age seven to the local community to contribute to the family’s unstable income. Soon he was also selling magazines and had a newspaper route. After serving with the U.S. Army in World War II, Cathy opened the Dwarf House restaurant with his brother Ben in 1946. After Ben was killed in an airplane accident, Cathy continued to operate the restaurant by himself. After many business challenges and experiments with the boneless chicken breast, Cathy developed the perfect recipe for what became the Chick-fil-A sandwich in the early 1960s. Chick-fil-A now operates restaurants in 39 states (and Washington, D.C.) and earned $4.6 billion in sales in 2012. The company is still family owned.

What Can We Learn from Truett Cathy?

It’s Easier to Succeed Than to Fail. The title of Cathy’s first book in 1989, this lesson seems counter-intuitive until you hear it from Cathy’s prospective. Cathy lists several reasons: money spent to fail must be spent again to succeed, doing a job over a second time is an expensive use of time and a person’s credibility and morale decrease with failure but increase with success.

Be Dedicated. Cathy once worked 36 hours straight in his first restaurant – not because he was a workaholic but because the work needed to be done or else the customers wouldn’t be served. There is some value in hard work for it’s own sake, but the difference for Cathy was dedication to his commitments: the cause and the customers.

Each Customer is Precious. If there’s one thing Cathy hated more than anything else, it was losing a customer. He would bend over backwards to accommodate and build good relationships them. He constantly asked for feedback. The problem with poor service, he said, isn’t that the customer will complain. It’s that they won’t complain – and then won’t come back.

You’ve Got to Give Something to Get Something. Cathy subscribed to the old proverb, “he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed,” or as the late Zig Ziglar put it, “You can have anything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” For Cathy, this meant generous promotions that involved free food and free coupons. Early critics reasoned that Cathy would never make it in business because he gave so much away for free. Instead, customers loved Cathy’s food and service so much they were willing to pay for it – and invite their friends.

Wealth is Only Worth It If You Give It Away. When faced with a life-threatening surgical procedure midway through his career, Cathy acknowledged that his brush with death taught him the insignificance of material things. Even though it may seem ironic for a man worth billions of dollars, Cathy related in his latest book Wealth, Is It Worth It? that you can’t take anything with you after you die. Therefore the only way wealth has any lasting value is if you use it to benefit others.

A Good Name is Worth More Than Anything Else. If you take away wealth, awards, and all the outward signs of success, all you’re left with are your choices, reputation and the quality of your character. A good name is worth more than everything else combined. Furthermore, if you associate yourself with other people of high character, you’ll be able to truly build a winning team.

Not only does Truett Cathy use his restaurant to feed hungry people, but also to sponsor high profile community events, like the Chick-fil-A Leadercast seminar on May 10. To find out how to attend with me, click here.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

There isn’t room to adequately capture Covey’s contributions in a single post, so I’d like to briefly share a bit from Covey’s first habit: Be Proactive. This is where effectiveness begins.

Heavily influenced by the writings of Viktor Frankl, Covey built his first habit on the fundamental principle of human nature that “between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.” In layman’s terms, this simply means there’s always something you can do about you. The determining factor in your effectiveness isn’t what happens to “out there.” It’s what happens on the inside, where we choose how we will respond to what happens to us.

I can’t think of a more poignant time for this habit than in today’s age. People increasingly assume their success is dependent on outside forces: the government, education opportunities, job opportunities, family background, faith background, etc. These can all play an enormous role to be sure, but they are never the ultimate determinants of success and effectiveness.

The opposite of being proactive is being reactive. Reactive people assume there is nothing or very little they can do about their circumstances or concerns. Proactive folks realize that even if they can’t change some circumstances, they still have the ability to influence many outcomes – and here is the key – they are committed to changing what they can change. As a result, their circle of influence is always growing and their circle of concern naturally decreases the more proactive they become.

This is the reason I get so tickled when someone asks me if they can, in fact, be a leader. Leadership never begins with a followership (i.e. on the outside), it begins with being proactive (i.e. on the inside). When you come to the point where you realize that in every circumstance you have the ability to choose your response – to influence your own attitude, your own life, then the lives of those around you, and the environment you find yourself in for the better – you are already headed down the path of effectiveness.

What is one circumstance that required you to take a proactive approach and exercise your freedom to choose a positive response?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.