A month later I ran into the Dad. He told me he would always remember that talk.

In that little boy – who is a gifted soccer player with a heart on the sleeve level of effort – lies the building blocks of great leadership. Achievers are often hardest on themselves not others, are never satisfied with their performance despite Herculean effort, try new things naturally, lead by example, sacrifice for others and the bigger picture, and demonstrate great character. The attributes converge to inspire others to follow the path being blazed by the guidepost in their midst.

A fantastic “Leadership From a Dancing Guy” video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO8MwBZl-Vc) is making the rounds on social media. A deep insight is offered: it’s the “first follower” – who joins the “lone nut” moving yet more people to join the crowd – that creates a movement. You have seen this dynamic so many times in your day-to-day organizational life. The “lone nut” is the pink shirt in the blue shirt crowd with the “odd” ideas that we isolate from the herd in focus groups or public engagement venues. The first follower is the person of trust in the community who says “You know, I think you have a good idea there.” The movement happens when the tentative sideline-sitters become the bandwagon jumpers.

The video is a great reminder to recognize the patterns that hold us back, and to break free from them.

Here’s some “breaking free” leader/first follower insights I have gathered over the years, listening to the voices of thousands of people in public engagement processes:

• Leaders are the community “Pied Pipers” and we all tend to know who they are. They are people of trust that others will follow. Gather enough around your big idea, and the big idea happens.
• The most innovative leaders/first followers are not always the most visible. You might ordinarily call them a “maverick.” Look for those who think about the future in creatively expressive ways. Then…listen to them and embrace their ideas.
• Gifted leaders are few in number – making our population look like a pyramid. It’s our job as municipalities and leader groups to work to flatten the pyramid by nurturing leadership skills in everyone not just someone.
• People genuinely appreciate bold, energetic leadership and are therefore able to disagree on the way while respecting the leadership.
• If you are a leader, don’t abdicate your responsibility and accountability in engagement processes that are so deep trying to appease everyone that the process tail wags the desired output dog. The drive for complete consensus beyond listening enough to recognize the trend is resource wasteful despite being mantra today in plan-making processes. Stop spinning wheels and start getting things done.
• We don’t have to give equal weight to every opinion in public engagement exercises. Some input is simply more thoughtful and constructive. It’s time for communities to shoulder up to the leadership voices that are about rising, and ignore the voices that are about falling. Today the reverse is typically true – the complainers are vocal while the silent majority sits at home on the sidelines wishing leaders would lead.
• Transformative breakthroughs come when leaders are able to elevate community input with classic storytelling that weaves vision, strategy, and action into a compelling direction.
• We tend to respond to crisis and are not good at planning ahead. To bridge the divide, talk about Why you matter as an initiative or community, and be strategically bold and audacious while grounding yourself in realistic stepping stones. Then measure your progress.
• Resistance to new ideas or change is all about fear. In marketing we call this a pain point. Address the pain point head on with some messaging, and move forward.
• We are stuck in a rut; we still go for the oil change at 5000 km even though today’s cars say do it at 10000+ km. Read about Pavlov’s Dogs (classic conditioning) and ask yourself if it’s not a perfect description for how bureaucracy conditions itself to say no and never try new things. Stop going through the motions. Condition yourself to get out of the ruts and find new pathways. Canada in the 21st century will be reliant on our collective ability to imagine, create, and innovate.

I think Mark Manson (http://markmanson.net/question) hits the soul of leadership and grounding for success, as people and as communities, with what he says is the most important question of your life: What are you willing to struggle for?

That little boy on a soccer field that I had the privilege to coach a few years ago was already well on his way to answering the question.