Monthly Archives: January 2010

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Everyday heroes: Betty Makoni in Zimbabwe
January 11, 2010

Leadership in the news, Leadership training, Leading by autobiography, Storytelling Leave a comment

  In the last two entries, I retold the stories of Jorge Munoz and Jordan Thomas, two of the people profiled as CNN Heroes. Another of the extraordinary stories on the CNN Heroes program was of a girl who was raped at age 6, and who at age 9 watched as her mother was murdered by her father. Unfortunately, such experiences have been all too common in her native Zimbabwe. You can see Betty Makoni’s remarkable profile here. A woman with the childhood experience of Betty would have every reason to shut out the world. For whatever reason, Betty Makoni’s reaction was the opposite. She continued to believe in the … Continue reading →

Everyday heroes: leadership stories for all of us
January 6, 2010

Leadership in the news, Leading by autobiography, Storytelling Leave a comment

  In the next two entries, I will present two more stories.  Those of you who have followed my courses and seminars, or those who have followed this blog for the past few months, I would encourage you to consider the leadership lessons of these stories (there are many!).  This should be an interesting exercise, as they reflect many of the concepts we have discussed. You may even want to write down some of your thoughts about these stories and use them as comments for this blog.  Then, in a subsequent entry, I will review some of these lessons from my perspective. Last time I wrote about the CNN documentary … Continue reading →

An everyday story of leadership
January 2, 2010

John's reflections, Leadership in the news, Leading by autobiography, Storytelling Leave a comment

  During the week between Christmas and the New Year, I have spent some of my time catching up on some reading and looking at videos I have been meaning to watch.  During this time, I came across a year-end show on CNN where they designate their ‘Heroes of 2009′. I found this program quite inspirational.  As you all know, I am always ready to hear a good story, particularly ‘stories of identity’, those simplified narratives through which people reveal who they are, where they come from, and why they do what they do. All of the heroes told something of themselves, and of why they choose to do what … Continue reading →

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