There’s a leader in all of us, independent of whether your job title has the word “leader” in it or not. I wanted to share a story (which is also mentioned in my book) that showcases this.

“Julie, an organic chemist, was doing drug research at a lab. Her boss, Gordon, was a well-regarded scientist but also very temperamental. One day she walked into Gordon’s office to ask for his feedback on the draft of a research paper they were co-authoring. The paper represented months of arduous research. Gordon told her that it was the “worst piece of rubbish” he’d ever seen.

Julie replied, “Gordon, I’m not a bit surprised that you thought the paper was rubbish. To be honest, I had the exact same feeling when I was writing it. I felt like I was rambling on and on. I’m always amazed when I read your papers because they’re so incredibly clear and lucid. That’s actually one of the reasons I wanted to work with you and why I was so excited when you offered me a position last fall. The results of our research could be extremely important, and I know that if the paper were well-written, it might make a tremendous impact. The paper may be beyond repair, but I’m wondering if you might have any suggestions about how I could make it better. I want to learn as much from you as I possibly can.”

Gordon’s mood seemed to instantly improve. He looked the paper over, pointing out problems to be addressed and offering ideas. Julie went on to publish the paper in a top journal and received a major award for it.”

In this interaction between Julie and her boss, who was leading and who was following?

We occasionally witness remarkable acts of leadership from people like Julie who aren’t formally trained in leadership. And in fact, many iconic leaders have apparently had even less training than her: Abraham Lincoln received only one year of schooling, Mother Teresa and Eleanor Roosevelt did not attend college, and Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi were poor students by their own confessions.

So how do ordinary people ascend to extraordinary leadership?

Over the last 10 years, Mentora’s research team has compiled and analyzed 1,000+ exemplary leadership moments — conversations, meetings, conflicts, negotiations, and speeches that individuals have had with their colleagues, partners, opponents, audiences, and even friends and family, where they achieved extraordinary impact. I invite you to learn about the lessons that the Mentora team was able to draw applied to this conversation between Julie and Gordon in this article I wrote for Harvard Business Review.

In case you haven’t heard of Mentora yet, the Mentora Institute is my way of bringing my work to companies through consulting and training. It’s been my pleasure to work with our talent at Mentora with the C-suite of companies both large and small to implement our Inner Mastery, Outer Impact framework to advance their leaders and their culture.

Warmly,
Hitendra

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