Friends,

Greetings and best wishes for an outstanding 2006!

I had an unusual New Year's day, first serving as master of ceremonies for the swearing in of Lansing's new mayor, Virg Bernero, and then sitting quietly in the back corner at the memorial service for Dick Noble, husband of Marianne Udow, the State's Director of Human Services.  I want to share a couple quick New Year's leadership thoughts from the two events.

I thought Virg's best moment was the one that was unplanned.  I had unwittingly lightened the mood in the Lansing Center through embarrassing little emcee gaffes, like having a brain freeze and forgetting the name of my friend Amy Krause, as I was about to introduce her; and then introducing one of the Councilmen as Councilwoman so-and-so.  The new mayor did a fine job with his inaugural speech, and then I introduced the Imam and Minister who offered the closing benedictions.  It was during these that Virg, standing next to me said, "I've got a problem; I forgot one paragraph, and it was the one about my wife."  I thought for a minute about how to rewind the whole program, and whispered back, "I can get you back up there."  I did.  He did.  And the crowd enthusiastically cheered his wife Teri and daughters Kelly and Virginia.  Why was it his best moment?  Because lots of people (me included, I think) would have just let the omission go.  We would avoid the embarrassment of revealing our mistakes, especially on the big day when we are "supposed" to be showing how cool, calm, collected and in control we are.  Kudos to the Mayor for being human and not hiding from a mistake; it's an instinct that should serve him well.

I went from Virg's hope-filled beginning to a passion-filled goodbye to Dick Noble at the Ann Arbor Friends (Quaker) Meeting House.  I came in not knowing Dick (I like and greatly admire his wife, Marianne), but left two hours later feeling like I had been introduced to an amazing person.  I heard factual things about him, e.g., that he was a philosophy professor, that he took a couple years off to sail in Greece and beyond, and that he struggled heroically with bi-polar condition.  But the truly amazing and inspiring thing - that made me scribble my own New Year's resolutions to closely imitate Dick - was hearing testimonial after testimonial from people he had deeply and fully listened to at singular or repeated critical moments in their lives.  More than a few remarked in amazement how after sometimes many-hours-long conversations - totally about them - he would call an hour or a day later and say, "I've been thinking about our conversation and there was one more thing I wanted to share."  He was that actively caring for them.  James MacGregor Burns writes about transformational leaders as those who raise others' "motivation and morality" (and have their own raised in the exchange).  I have always loved that definition, and it was clear that Dick was a transformational leader.  So, here's to those leaders who listen well, fully, deeply, and ask the great questions that help us know ourselves better than we possibly could on our own.

If you're looking for an inspiration for your New Year's resolutions, you might think of Virg, Dick, or someone who inspires you deeply, that you might work to emulate them so you can...
Lead with your best self,
 
Dan

Daniel Granholm Mulhern
First Gentleman
Office of the Governor
State of Michigan
(517) 241-0534

"Seeing the magnificence in all people -- dedicated to their fullest success."

Copyright 2006 Daniel Mulhern.  I distribute RFL without charge to people with an interest in leadership, and grant permission to these recipients to distribute copies of these works to personal contacts for non-commercial purposes only.  All other rights are reserved, and requests for copying and distribution of these works may be made to FirstGentleman@Michigan.gov.  The views of this and other RFLs reflect my personal beliefs and may or may not reflect the views of my wife, Jennifer Granholm, or any other officials of the State government.