Attributes of Inspirational Leaders – #3
Inspirational leaders are determined. They aren’t necessarily born or taught to be this way any more so than others. Their sense of determination grows in the soils of a compelling purpose.
Inspirational leaders aren’t doing a job or fulfilling a role. They’re on a self-defined mission. In fact, Mayor Tom Menino and Dr. Jim O’Connell, whose stories appear below, never showed much determination, until each found his purpose.
Purpose Leads to Determination
Jim O’Connell moved aimlessly from job to job throughout his late 20s. Then one day O’Connell witnessed a gruesome motorcycle accident and comforted the injured driver until help arrived. O’Connell felt at ease in this role. “It made me really wish I could help fix his leg.”
That accident led O’Connell to medical school. Getting in wasn’t easy. A determined O’Connell chipped away at pre-med courses one by one. A number of medical schools discouraged him from applying, stating that he was too old to purse a career in medicine, but he stuck with it and was accepted to Harvard. Determination.
Many years and stories later, Dr. O’Connell has created a model for treating the homeless that has gained world wide attention. Boston Health Care for the Homeless is a network of clinics throughout the city and a 77,000-square-foot medical complex that includes a pharmacy, dental clinic, long-term care facility and end-of-life care. O’Connell’s determination, to provide the homeless with medical care, delivered compassionately and respectfully, grew from a compelling purpose that revealed itself over the course of many years.
Determined to Stand Up
Obstacles are walls that can be broken.
~Claudia Amador, 6th grade, Boston Public Schools, award winning essay Max Warburg Courage Curriculum
Mayor Tom Menino was on a mission to unite the city’s diverse neighborhoods into “One Boston”. In the 1960s Louise Day Hicks inflamed racial tensions when she led a campaign in defiance of court ordered busing to integrate Boston public schools. Menino wanted to heal the wounds and divisions left behind. He acted in concert with this goal throughout his 20 year term, even after the Boston Marathon bombings.
Menino was determined that Boston would respond as a united city. He was determined that the people of Boston would stand together and neighbor would not turn against neighbor in an effort to find the terrorists, who were immigrants to this country.
Menino was two days post surgery that implanted a metal plate in his leg, when he received news of the bombings. The mayor had a history of blood clots and was instructed to keep his leg elevated, but he left the hospital immediately, in a wheel chair, with a catheter, and against doctors’ advice, to be with his people. Many acts of courage and sheer determination followed.
“At the interfaith service …a separate microphone, adjusted to the height of my wheelchair, was set up for me. When it was my turn to speak, my son whispered to me, ‘Dad , I’ll wheel you over to the microphone.’ Suddenly, I knew what to do. ‘Tommy,’ I said, ‘I’m the mayor. Wheel me to the pulpit. I’m going to stand up.’ If you watched the service, you saw the struggle I had doing it. I could feel the president and Mrs. Obama and the two thousand people in the cathedral rooting for me. With Tommy tipping the wheelchair forward, I put my hands on the arms and pushed. It was no good. I tucked my elbows further back and pushed harder. Biting my lower lip against the pain grabbing the lectern for balance, I stood up. The enclosed pulpit hid the line connecting my catheter to the bag on the wheelchair.
‘Good morning,’ I said, as the sun lit the stained-glass windows. ‘And it is a good morning because we are together. We are one Boston. No adversity, no challenge, nothing can tear down the resilience in the heart of this city and its people. . . . I have never loved it . . . more than I do today.’ I described the acts of caring that unfolded within seconds of the bombing. Boston’s worst moment, was the beginning of Boston’s finest hour: ‘Even with the smell of smoke in the air, and blood on the streets, and with tears in our eyes, we triumphed over that hateful act on Monday afternoon. . . . Because this is Boston, a city with courage, compassion, and strength that knows no bounds.’
Governor Patrick spoke next.
‘Mayor Menino started Monday morning frustrated he couldn’t be at the finish line this time as he always is. And then late that afternoon, checked himself out of the hospital to help this city, our city, face down this tragedy.’
His last line— ‘We will rise, and we will endure’— picked up on my gesture. Reporters are suckers for symbols. A Los Angeles Times headline was typical: ‘Mayor Menino: Symbol of a Resilient Boston.’ The story described the reaction to my speech—’He pulled himself from his wheelchair to the loudest applause of the day’— and noted that ‘in some ways, the mayor has become a potent symbol as a wounded Boston tries to heal.’
~From Mayor for a New America
Mayor Tom Menino, was determined to stand up to enduring pain and use himself as a symbol for what the city needed to do.
Determination.
Read about the first two attributes of inspirational leaders – purpose and genuine caring.