Relevance to Significance

Hall of Fame and legendary college basketball coach John Wooden said, “When the opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.” This is such a truth that when the light shines on you, you need to be ready to perform.

I have had the opportunity to hold leadership roles in different non-profits, government, healthcare, and emergency services systems with my biggest frustration being the number of individuals with enormous potential who squander opportunities to be effective because they did not prepare. Leadership is different from management as management has a set of policies and rules guiding the process; leadership does not. Leadership is complex, just think of how leadership expert John Maxwell defines leadership… “leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.”  Influence brings change, and that change is shaped by people…and it is people that make leadership complex.

The world has never had a greater need for good, no that is wrong, the world has never had a greater need for great leadership and great leadership doesn’t just happen it takes people continually developing themselves as those who are not growing are working towards irrelevance. 

Ask yourself this question, are you ready for the next opportunity for your family, your team, your community, and/or your workplace? If the answer is yes (and it should be) then what does your preparation path look like? For those just starting on the preparation journey (yes journey that never ends, you only continue to get better) the question is not what do I start with, it is the action of starting where you are with what is in front of you….the next step will be revealed. Whether it is a success, failure or somewhere in between the learning from the first step will guide you to the next. Let’s start preparing, working your way through relevance to significance.

Sterling Martin