BLOG (Day 10) The Technology Director's Guide to Leadership: The Power of Great Questions (Chapter 8)

What does it take to be a great leader?

This question has certainly been asked by almost any individual who wishes to make a difference in the world, a change for the betterment of humanity. This particular chapter in the book offers a nice and concise summary and conclusion to the question posed above, what does a great leader look like? The book offers many practical suggestions, including taking advantage of resources, developing reliable team members, creating a vision and goal, and a host of other aspects to being a leader. The book kinda has a metanarrative concerning a man name Max who tries to learn wisdom and knowledge from a few professors he meets along the way to becoming a great leader. The book provides many features or characteristics of leadership, however, I have a particular rebuttal about the whole idea of an emerging leader: an intangible characteristic.

In the 2000 National Football League (NFL), a young, slow, physically underwhelming stature by the name of Tom Brady was picked 199th overall in the draft that Spring. He played a few years out of Michigan, but overall, he really did not show any real signs of potential for NFL success. That season, the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots left the game with an injury, thus creating a path for Tom Brady to play. Tom's first NFL experience was in the 4th quarter of a playoff game, where he drove his team down the field to win the game. Since then, he was become a great leader on his team. He has won 2 NFL MVP awards (which means he was the best player in the league for two different NFL seasons). He has won three Super Bowls (most players don't even win one). He is a future Hall of Fame Quarterback, who had 198 people taken in front of him in the draft over ten years ago. Tom Brady, in my humble but correct opinion, has the intangible aspect to leadership that cannot be measured. Often times, you don't know if your leader has that intangible element until after the fact (success or failure, that is).

These are my thoughts about leadership, and I did glean much helpful and practical information from this book (I also did the first five chapters of this book in my GEM project).

Once again, I really enjoyed your class, Dr. Krug. Keep up the good work!


Andrew Fultz



P.S. Boom.