Leadership Gets Personal
by Nan McRaven and Susan Engelking
“Leadership Gets Personal” offers insight into the philosophies of some remarkable people on life and growth, telling engaging tales along the way. In this book, Nan McRaven and Susan Engelking, two people I admire, have done a masterful job of assembling the success stories of twelve of the University of Texas’s most prominent graduates. Among the people who were interviewed: Admiral Bill McRaven, Roy Spence, Brené Brown, Matthew McConaughey, Colt McCoy, and Amy Faith Ho.
All of these people have achieved great things through perseverance and determination to achieve their goals, sometimes tinged with a trace of pure luck. For instance, I loved reading about how Roy Spence met up with Bill Gurasich and his brother Steve, then Judy Trabulsi and Tim McClure at UT. They were all young people looking towards their futures, who later became the nucleus of the award-winning GSD&M advertising agency. As for pointing to success after college, a Gallup-Purdue poll found that most thriving former students had three things in common: a professor who cared about them, a mentor, and a group project they worked on for six months. Roy had the first two in Alan Sager and Shirley Bird Perry. His project was Media 70, a series of multimedia shows that they made and showed on campus for a small admission fee. “My class was the UT campus,” Roy says. That trio of requirements would be very useful information for someone starting their career.
Then there is Admiral Bill McRaven, Nan’s brother. This well-rounded man with a background in journalism has served as a Navy SEAL and as Chancellor of the UT System. As Time Magazine wrote, he is a “reporter-turned-frogman-turned-giantkiller.” And his book “Make Your Bed,” based on his commencement address for the 2014 class at UT, has sold over 2,000,000 copies and has been published in 40 languages. As he was told during his rigorous SEAL training, you can ring a bell that is mounted near the training course if you want to quit. And yes, I can attest that the further anyone goes in a career, the stronger the lure of the bell often becomes. “Never, ever ringing the bell” is the motto he lived by – and that resonates with most successful people.
And how about Dr. Brené Brown, who went through a stressful family situation, dropped out of UT, roamed around Europe, came back to St. Mary’s, flunked out, tried to get back into UT, was rejected, went to Houston Community College, didn’t get back into UT, then attended ACC, and finally was accepted back at UT. She now has three degrees, including a PhD, and she runs The Brené Brown Education and Research Group, spending 90 percent of her time on leadership. As the chapter on her states, “Her own life is a model for daring greatly—not because she is perfect, but because she is imperfect. She has written six #1 New York Times bestsellers, and she’s still writing, still researching, and still speaking to audiences around the world.” This quote from her is revealing and useful: “The biggest barrier to courageous leadership is not fear. It's how we protect ourselves when we’re afraid.” In her words, learn how not to armor up, but to acknowledge your fear, listen, and learn.
All twelve of these stories are excellent and instructive. Nan and Susan did a terrific job writing them. If I had a young relative who needed a gift, I could not imagine a better one than this book. It’s available online and in bookstores around Austin.
