WHAT KELLY SLATER TAUGHT ME ABOUT BEING A LEADER

business blog Feb 11, 2020

In Last week’s blog post, I talked about some of the common myths of leadership as well at the 5 most successful traits of leaders which got me thinking of some of the best lessons I've learned over the years watching leaders in the entertainment industry.

One of my favorite examples of leadership comes from a tv show that's been on the air for over forty years.

FORTY years.

In television, that's unheard of but I like to think that part of this show's success has to do with the creator.

Saturday Night Live's creator and executive producer, Lorne Michaels, is someone whose leadership style I've always found interesting.

Known to be sometimes difficult and often brutally honest, Lorne takes the leadership trait of encouraging participation seriously.

Every Monday when the cast rounds up in his office to go over the upcoming week's show, he expects ideas from everyone.

In fact, that's one of the things I admire the most about SNL.

In order to get air time, you better be contributing; writing sketches, performing - essentially bringing something to the table.

Everyone needs to show up as a leader no matter what their job title is. - Tweet this!

Another example of leadership comes from one of my favorite surf icons - Kelly Slater.

Last year, B and I were in Hawaii watching Kelly compete at a surf competition.

He had just finished his heat -  just surf lingo for a specific period during a competition - and was sitting with the announcers up in the stands.

As B and I were planted down in the sand, I noticed this guy with his two dogs near the water. He had them on one of those leashes that branch off to secure two dogs from one handle.

This guy was fixated on the competition and wasn't paying attention as one of his dogs was happily bouncing around in the water, the much smaller dog kept getting pulled under, unable to swim or get his owner's attention that he was in trouble.

I watched as this poor little dog was desperately trying to stay above water yet ...... I did nothing.

I just stared in disbelief.

It wasn't until Kelly Slater came racing down from the stands to yell at this guy to pay attention that I sort of snapped out of it and thought to myself - WTH!?

Why didn't I step in and say something?

Why did I wait for someone else to do it?

I was so disappointed in myself that day and while I'll never really know why I just sat there, it definitely made me reassess the type of leader I was showing up as in my personal life versus my professional life.

And reminded me that leadership isn't just a 'one & done' skill but one that needs to be practiced over and over.  

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