Our chief want in life is somebody [a leader] who will make us do what we can. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Last weekend I walked into the Alumni Office of my alma mater to register for my 30th class reunion. I was immediately greeted with a very enthusiastic, “Hello, Kathryn! It’s so good to see you. Do you remember me”? Ha! No, I drew an absolute blank; had no idea who this person was. Then she proceeded to tell me that I had recruited her to the college more than 25 years ago. Following graduation, I worked as an admissions counselor/recruiter for five years and I recruited a lot of students. Even after she told me her name, I still had no recollection of this woman. However, she certainly remembered me and began to reminisce about me, in detail. Wow, I was a little embarrassed that I still couldn’t remember her. She’s now a microbiologist at a major hospital. What I can’t even remember was the beginning of her journey to “make us do what we can.”
The following morning, I attended a meet-and-greet at the business department hoping to find one of my professors. I walked in, was greeted with an eager hug, and then listened to him go through my resume (accurately!) as he introduced me to the new faculty. He didn’t know I was coming! But he was someone in my life who was my “make us do what we can” person. He was the first person to encourage me to really pursue business. By that I mean, told me that I could be more than a secretary, which was my worldview of women in business at that time. He was not only one of my biggest cheerleaders, he actually personally paid for the first quarter of my MBA. I just didn’t have the money to get started and he believed in me that much. He was going to “make me do what I could.”
This all came just a few days after I attended a concert with the Emerson String Quartet, which took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. They have won nine Grammy’s and many consider them the best string quarter in the world. I wish I could have video-taped their final piece. It was an octet; they were joined by the Calidore String Quartet. The Calidore Quartet members are probably half the age of the Emerson Quartet. The Emerson Quartet could have been elitists, they could have been impatient, but they were anything but that. I could visibly see their support and encouragement for these younger musicians. When the piece was finished, it was the Emerson Quartet who immediately congratulated the younger Calidore Quartet on their performance.
I truly believe that Ralph Waldo Emerson would have been proud of his namesake. “Our chief want in life is somebody [a leader] who will make us do what we can.”
Effective leaders are those people who “make us do what we can.”