Becoming The Leader I Was Meant To Be

Last month I got the chance to meet Pat Williams an icon in the sports world when it comes to leadership and management. Mr. Williams started out in baseball and worked his way to being a creator of the Orlando Magic Basketball Club. He was the GM for the Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks early on in his career, but now he is writing books on leadership and touring the world as a motivational speaker.

 I bumped into him at the Baseball Winter Meetings, Baseball Chapel Ceremony. It’s a breakfast event held every year at the winter meetings to promote the mission and vision of the Chapel. Pat has written over 70 books, and after listening to him speak I bought one of his latest, " The Leadership Excellence Devotional: The Seven Sides of Leadership in Daily Life."

I like to start and finish each day with The Lords Prayer. I sit up in the bed and spend a few minutes focusing on the gifts I have and what I still want to achieve in life. I say few words to send my love in any direction it may be needed, and ask for the patience and guidance I need to make it through tough times. Lately I have been asking for a clear vision that shows me how to be the leader I have the potential to be.

Leadership has become something I study and thrive to understand better each day. The vision has manifested itself through a more focused leadership roll between my wife and I, my work and many other aspects of my life. (More on my tools for a better relationship in another post.) The word leadership brings up so many questions I decided to put together a TV series all about it called "Leadership Summit."

After doing my first two interviews with Western Illinois University, Hall of Fame Softball Coach Holly Van Vlymen and Two time division II football National Champion coach, Bob Nielson. I started with coaches because I thought I'd be able to keep up with coaches on the subject of leadership. In those two interviews (which will premiere sometime this spring 2014) I learned in good detail, how deep the coaches love for leadership has to be. I'm still in the process of editing the programs and trying to digest all of the new information in them. I will definitely share the knowledge when I get it compiled.

In the mean time I had been asking for reliable daily resources I could get current leadership information to bring me up to speed on the language of the worlds best leaders. I found what I needed when I got the chance to met Pat Williams in Orlando back in December. He started his speech that day by confessing that he believes that God is the greatest leader the world has ever seen and that is who he strives to lead like.

This caught my interest because I hadn't heard leadership used this way before. It made me think of my Grandmother and all the hours we spent at church as a kid. She would always try to keep us on the straight and narrow. As of late, I don't have a church I can call home, but I do my best to keep my faith and live with a serving heart.

The book has a neat twist as it links bible scriptures to situations in business, sport or life. The book is set up to read one section a day and help build your leadership mind. It is sort of like me waking up each day and saying that prayer. It just gives me that sense that I have not and will not allow my shortcomings to keep me from my dreams.

If your looking for a vision of something you want to accomplish then write it clearly on paper, say it to a friend or to the God you worship. The saying "Prayer Changes Things" is not a joke. I've put all of my life goals on paper and did everything I could to make them happen. In most cases, I didn't see the path until I said the prayer and asked for the vision. Try it. It is just another way to keep your head up through it all.