Giuliani gives leadership lessons to HPU grads

On May 7, High Point University held its commencement ceremony for about 650 undergraduate and graduate students, including 16 in the home furnishings marketing and interior design programs.

For that special occasion, University President Nido Qubein landed former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as the guest speaker. As you recall, Giuliani was in office during the events of Sept. 11, 2001. His ensuing leadership propelled him into the national spotlight. He has since written a popular book called "Leadership" and even has been considered a candidate for higher office.

Giuliani was at HPU to talk about leadership and inspire his audience. In this respect, he was very approachable, and his speech made you laugh and think at the same time. That said, it gave important lessons to the graduates, many of whom face challenges and opportunities in the global economy.

To be a leader, Giuliani said, you must:

1. HAVE A STRONG SET OF BELIEFS. Giuliani pointed to leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Each had a strong set of beliefs that allowed them to fight for causes they believed in. "Strong beliefs are necessary if you are going to make significant change," Giuliani said. "Strong beliefs are necessary if you are going to get through difficult times." To achieve those beliefs, he said, spend time in reflection and prayer. "We have to know what is important to us, we have to know what guides us," he said. "If you are going to lead other people, you have to explain to them where you are taking them."

2. BE AN OPTIMIST. Any good leader, Giuliani said, is an optimist by nature. "People follow hope, they follow dreams," he said. "They follow aspirations. They follow people offering solutions to problems." He noted how Reagan was criticized for seeing the country through "rose-colored glasses." Yet, "If you don't see it that way, you can't take it there," Giuliani said. King, he said, led through his dream of a country that didn't view people by the color of their skin, but rather by the content of their character. Giuliani noted that optimism is especially important in tough times. "It's not being unrealistic, not being foolish, (not) not understanding that there are problems that have to be confronted," he said. "But as soon as you can, turn yourself to the solution to the problem." People that rise to the top, he said, are those who are recognized early on as problem solvers.

3. DEVELOP STRONG ETHICS. It's important, he said, for leaders to "know what's right and what's wrong, to ask yourself those questions, to understand that if you succeed, you want to succeed within the rules. That the satisfaction of accomplishment is not by bending the rules, cheating or lying, but being clear about what it is that you want to do and asking yourself questions about what is right and wrong throughout life."

4. ENGAGE IN RELENTLESS PREPARATION. This was a lesson Giuliani learned from a judge who was a boss and mentor early in his career. The judge said that for every hour you're in court, prepare four hours outside of court. Then, no matter what, something unexpected will happen, but you'll be prepared. That same lesson, Giuliani said, is important whether you are going for a job interview or making a financial presentation. A situation will always arise that you weren't ready for. But your preparation will guide you. He then described the emotions he felt when he saw a man throw himself from the burning towers on Sept. 11. "I watched it, and my emotions changed and my thinking changed in those seconds," he said. "I said to myself, "we are in uncharted territory. We have never been through this before." At that moment, he said, he and others just had to respond. That response was based on all the plans the city made over the years for high-rise fires, building collapses and airplane crashes.

5. HAVE COURAGE. "It's something you have, you just don't know it," he told the graduates. "A lot of people think they don't have courage because they are afraid. Well the reality is, everybody is afraid. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the presence of fear and being able to overcome it." Anyone who does brave things has fear, he said. "What he learns to do is to manage his fear and overcome it, in order to do what he has to do." Giuliani said. Courage is also important, he said in less dramatic circumstances such as taking risks. It also is important in dealing with illness or dealing with the illness of a friend or family member. "It took courage," he told the graduates, "to do what you did" in pursuing a degree.

6. CARE ABOUT PEOPLE. This is a critical, he said, for any leader. "The most important thing to learn is that you are working with people, with human beings, and you have to care about them and they have to mean something to you," he said. A chapter in his book is called "Weddings Discretionary, Funerals Necessary." He learned that lesson from his father. "It's more important to go to a funeral than to a wedding," he said. "Because people need you more at a funeral. People are lost, they are alone. They need you, they need your help.… I always translated that to mean, it's more important for me to be there when things are going wrong than when things are going right.… That's when you really need it." He added, "If you are going to deal with illness, or you are going to deal with setbacks, or you are going to deal with tragedy in your life, you need friends. And you will have those friends if you were there for them. If you weren't, you are going to be very lonely." The same thing, he said, is true in an organization. When a company is in trouble, everyone will rally around it if there is a spirit of goodwill where people help one another and feel a bond. "You have to care about people, you have to love people," he said. "The fact is, that has to be the thing that drives you in order to be a leader, to succeed."

This moving message, I thought, applies to any industry. But it's especially valuable to home furnishings, which has gone through tremendous change and upheaval. If you are a leader, ask yourself, do I have these traits? Are we fostering them in our young people? It appears such traits will be critical if we want to attract new talent and thus keep the industry vibrant.

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