Who Are You Allowing to Lead You?
Aa coach ramble on leadership. This isn’t just for the accounting executives out there, but for anyone who is in or aspires to be in a position of leadership. I have a question for you: Who are you allowing to lead you?
A Personal Story
Quick backstory: This past Saturday morning, I was in my office, having my cup of coffee, and tears were streaming down my face. Why, might you ask? Well, I had just watched Pat Sajak’s retirement video from Wheel of Fortune. I missed it live the night before, so I had to watch it the next day, and I got emotional.
What would cause such emotion? Well, Pat turned into something else for me during COVID than he was before. Before, he was just a game show host. He ran Wheel of Fortune, and my wife and I would compete over the puzzles while we made dinner. Sometimes, we just laughed at the contestants and their guesses. But during COVID, I noticed something else. Pat was having an influence on me. Pat was leading me.
Pat Sajak’s Influence
It sounds strange, right? But Pat has psychological capital. He’s a hero—not in the sense of Batman and Superman, but in the sense of the acronym HERO:
- H is for Hope
- E is for Efficacy
- R is for Resilience
- O is for Optimism
Pat was a hero. Every night, show after show, he’d get out there and encourage hope in each of the contestants. He’d supply them with the energy that said, “You can win, you can do this. You’ve got this.” He ran a tight ship; his show started and finished on time. He made sure the puzzles flowed, conversations didn’t go too long, and people stood or sat where they were supposed to. That’s practicing efficacy.
During COVID, the show went on hiatus, but they came back, practiced safe distancing, wore masks, and used that little white thing to spin the wheel. Pat has been doing it for over 40 years—that’s resilience. And then optimism—no matter how horrible a guess was, he would still say, “You’ve got this. That’s the worst guess I’ve ever heard, but you’ve got this.” He was a hero.
That’s where the tears came from. I’m going to miss that, but it also makes me reflect on who else I’m allowing to influence my leadership. Who else is creating an example or tone of how to lead my life?
Take Inventory of Your Influences
I want you to do an inventory. Look around and see who is influencing your leadership. Who are you becoming without even knowing it? It took me a while to figure out that Pat was having an influence on me, and it started to show up in my own life. I can be a hero at times—not every time—but I thank Pat for that.
I hope you are intentional about who you allow to lead you. There are a lot of influences out there right now, and I question some of their intentions. Whether they speak truth or untruth, you might catch them on the news, social media, or YouTube, but they are having an influence on you.
My Challenge to You
My challenge today is to pick some leadership that you want to allow in your life and let it influence you to become the leader you want to become.
Other than that, I’m just going to miss Pat. Thanks for reading.
Doug, The CPA Coach
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