Leadership Speech
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Hyman Jay BlancoLeadership Speech
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Hyman Jay BlancoFirst of All I would like to formally congratulate you for being elected on your respective
positions. You all deserve it guys.
By just looking at these young men and women, brings me back to the time when I was then
sitting like you in front of our adviser when i was on my elementary, secondary and college
days. I was then a leader like you.. a class officer, then an organization officer and a council
representative way back then on my college days and even until now, in my graduate school
days, a program representative, representing all of my colleagues in our program. And based
on my experience over the years, I have concluded that a simple model captures the three
key traits people require in order to bestow the mantle of leadership on someone. Student
leaders, now I would like to ask you to consider, what is leadership? To me a leader is a
communicator; an individual with the ability to share their vision with those around them. A
leader is passionate; their leadership has a purpose, a goal they are dedicated to achieving,
through the inspirational motivation their team. A leader is a teacher; as great leadership will
result in the empowerment of others to lead, take risks and develop new skills. Allow me to
shortly discuss the traits people require their leader to possess
• First, people look for integrity – confidence that a person will do the right thing, with the
best interest of the group in mind, even when that may not be in the leader’s own selfinterest.
As a practical matter, this integrity is embodied in the leader’s behavior. For example, leaders
with integrity a comfortable adding people more talented than themselves to a team. And
when things go wrong, they take responsibility, rather than throwing subordinates unto fire
or blaming failure on unforeseeable events. Make no mistake: leadership is an honor that
often requires sacrifice.
• Second, people look for competence – a leader must have the skill to assess a situation and
either directly take, or indirectly organize, the sequence decisions and actions required to
ensure the group’s survival and the achievement its larger goals. A leader also needs to be
able to perform under pressure, to be resilient when adversely surprised, and to have the grit
and persistence to overcome obstacles.
• And third, a leader must have empathy for the people who have entrusted him or her with
the leadership of their group. Leaders authentically care about their people. You can’t fake
this; evolution has endowed people with a very strong ability to tell the difference between
leaders who are authentic, and leaders who are putting on an act. For example, leaders with
empathy don’t hesitate to liberally share credit for their team’s success.
So far, so good. But I’m sure that some of you are thinking that there is still something missing
from this description of leadership. I agree. There is one last element, and it is cr?itical.
My father used to say that there are only three things a person leaves behind when they die:
their children, their creations, and the impact of their actions. And when you are on your
deathbed, looking back on your life, actions that serve no higher purpose than maximizing
your own wealth and pleasure will look painfully small and insignificant. Most people know
this, and either explicitly or intuitively want to be part of a collective purpose that is larger
than their own pleasure, that gives meaning to their lives and the passage of time. This is the
last aspect of leadership: the ability to define a noble purpose for a group, and to give meaning
to every individual’s effort. Leadership is to leave a mark on someones life .and letting
someone decide on which path to choose. To lead is to show the way. You must learn today
and lead tomorrow Let me end this with a simple qoutation from J. Buchan. The role of a great
leader is not to give greatness to human beings, but to extract the greartness they already
have inside them.. Student leaders Goodluck! Thank you and Good day.
