Two great leadership stories

I get invitations to some really interesting events. In the past few days I have been to a fundraising event and a concert and on each occasion  I heard stories of great personal leadership.

The first event was a fundraising dinner for Columba 1400 which describes itself as being a “social enterprise devoted to leadership development” but which is a bit of an understatement! I was lucky enough to be a participant in its leadership programme in 2003 ( so long ago -wow) and can truly say that – cliched though it might sound – the experience changed my life. On a practical level I learned the invaluable coaching skills that I use now but on a personal level I started to understand what contributes to my own personal leadership. I was delighted to hear that the 3000th graduate was going to speak that evening. He was standing near to me before dinner so I went up for a chat. He said he was amazed to meet someone who had graduated such a long time ago! He was obviously nervous about speaking to the assembled throng of about 200 people but he was not going to miss the chance to do so. He shared the story of how he has turned his life round after the Columba 1400 programme eloquently and confidently. He can only see a bright future. You can see more about Tony here and I think that his quote right at the end is quite something.

The second event was a concert by the National Youth Choir of Scotland  – National Girls’ Choir 2008. I went along with a good friend and parent of one of the girls. Her story  of personal leadership  – though quite different from Tony’s – is something special too.

This young lady lives in the furthermost island of Scotland. She decided she would like to audition for the choir. She taught herself to sing pieces she could use in the audition ( from YouTube I believe!), auditioned by video link because of the distance and was successful.  Each girl gets singing lessons during the training and she had to tell her tutor that she had had no singing lessons – ever – to that point ( unlike most if not all of the other girls). Suffice to say she thrived in the environment of the choir and the performance on Saturday was marvellous. I don’t mean to single her performance out as any better than that of others – just to tell the story of a young lady who decided to set out to do something that she wanted to do – understood, recognised and got over the barriers on the way – and reached her goal!

There is a lesson in each of those two stories for all of us!