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Giuliani outlines principles of leadership
By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor
GIULIANI
Rudy Giuliani does a dead-on mob-boss impression, but his role as godfather to a bereaved city and nation, and as “America’s mayor” during the terrorist attacks a year ago, is for real.
Speaking before a sell-out crowd of nearly 8,000 last night, Giuliani—the first in the Distinguished Speaker Series to sell out Alumni Arena—was funny, genuine and bounded up the steps to the dais with all the energy and enthusiasm of a man who loves his job—motivating and inspiring others in his new role as management consultant and successful author.
As a poignant and powerful reminder of the losses and sacrifices of Sept. 11, 2001, a flag that had flown over the World Trade Center site during recovery and cleanup efforts was carried into the arena by UB business major James Selwyn, whose father, Howard Selwyn, died when the South Tower collapsed.
Giuliani, the Student Choice Speaker and former two-term New York City mayor and federal prosecutor, opened his lecture with a riff on the popular HBO television series, “The Sopranos,” admitting that he watches the show and that his favorite part, the opening credits, shows mob boss Tony Soprano driving into New Jersey from Manhattan. “That’s the part I like. I keep saying to myself, ‘I sent him there,’” he joked, alluding to his former job as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who fought organized crime.
Giuliani, who said he’s enjoying private life but won’t rule out another run for office, explained that he formulated his ideas about leadership—the subject of his lecture—mostly before the terrorist attacks, but that Sept. 11 made him rethink leadership in ways he’d never imagined before.
He singled out six principles of leadership—having a definable set of beliefs, being courageous, living life as an optimist, being relentlessly prepared (“know what you’re talking about”), surrounding yourself with effective people and being a good communicator—and illustrated each principle with personal stories and examples of people he’s looked to for these very qualities, especially during difficult times.
“When I say leadership, I don’t just mean running a large organization or small organization; I also mean running your life because you need leadership to get through life,” he pointed out.
Leaders like former President Ronald Reagan, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Winston Churchill, the indomitable prime minister of England who lead the country through nightly bombing raids by the German Air Force during World War II, inspired and guided Giuliani’s own style of leadership, as well as the people who surrounded him during last year’s tragedy, he said.
He pointed out that the most important leadership quality is having a well-defined set of beliefs. “You can’t go through life without a rudder,” he said, noting that if a set of beliefs isn’t present in one’s life when something horrible happens, “you’re probably not even going to be able to help yourself.”
King’s ideas about non-violence and Reagan’s beliefs about communism were formed internally, through intensive study and reflection, and not as the result of studying polls, said Giuliani. “The first principle of leadership, I believe, is understanding who you are, what you are and what you stand for and being willing to stand for something,” he emphasized.
“It comes down to what happened on Sept. 11.” On that day, he told the audience, terrorists attacked the United States to break its spirit, with the goal of proving that the nation was weak and its people were pampered and living without a core set of beliefs.
“What they (the terrorists) found was that the strength of what people who live in freedom believe was so strong that they could absorb a horrific attack like that and stand up and not retreat, which began with the firefighters, the police officers and the rescue workers, and continues through the recovery effort,” Giuliani said.
The fact that emergency personnel willingly put their lives at risk—knowing that their very lives might be required in the process—is motivated by a strong set of beliefs, he said, which led to the next principle in his lessons of leadership and one he witnessed on a daily basis during the aftermath of the attacks: courage.
Courage is the management, not the absence, of fear, said Giuliani. Courage is overcoming fear to do what is necessary, he added. “If you’re never afraid, please go and see a psychiatrist,” he half-joked.
Giuliani said he was very afraid when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer several years ago, but that he was one of the lucky ones in that he received the news early. That knowledge helped him overcome his fear because he was able to do something about it, he said.
Giuliani also is an optimist.
“To be a leader and an effective one and a good one, you have to be an optimist. You really do; you have to be an optimist,” he repeated emphatically. “Nobody follows a pessimist.”
An optimist, said Giuliani, is a problem-solver, someone able to look at a set of problems, no matter how bad things are, and find a way out. “You have to train yourself to think that way,” he said.
In spite of the fact that Winston Churchill suffered from clinical depression in a time before much was known about treating the condition, he had to lead his country through times that Giuliani said were much more difficult than last year’s terrorist attacks. “It was not just a bombing,” he reminded the audience, “but continuous attacks.” Londoners got up every morning and went to work and to school—going on with their daily lives—not knowing who they might have to bury later that day, he said. Churchill gave his people hope, as did Martin Luther King, Jr., who helped others understand that the difficulties that they were facing then would lead to meaningful change, which is the mark of a good leader, he added.
“It’s always helpful to think of people who have gotten through situations as bad or worse than mine,” he said. “If they can do it, I can do it.
“Churchill presented the defiance that people who live in freedom can overcome anything,” including those who “have a reservoir of strength and help from God that people who live in oppression don’t have,” he said.
Moreover, the mark of a great leader like Churchill, said Giuliani, is the ability to find solutions to problems, even if you have to struggle with yourself emotionally to do it.
Giuliani’s speech struck a chord with students.
“I really like what he said about courage—about it not being an issue of not having fear, but an issue of overcoming fear and working through it,” said David Skeldon, a senior music major from Rochester.
“It seems like his faith is really foundational—his faith in God, but also his faith in the people of New York City. It seems like a driving force in his life and I think we’ve seen the effects of it in his capacity and ability to really lead people. He did great things for the city, even for the state,” said Skeldon.
Senior psychology major Dana Winiewicz of Lancaster called herself a pessimist, but said she’s thinking about changing her attitude after hearing Giuliani speak. She said Giuliani’s talk was very empowering and that she doesn’t think of him as a politician, but as a real human being unconcerned about polls and not focused on his image. She enthusiastically said that she would vote for him if he ran for office again.
Joseph Gerbore, an undeclared freshman from Long Island who was in his high school classroom Sept. 11 when he first heard about the attacks, said Giuliani’s lecture was inspirational and encouraged him to review his own ideas about leadership.
“He showed that he was a true leader,” said Gerbore, “because he cared about others instead of himself.”