Pundit’s Mailbag —
Wild Oats’ Harris Talks About Mentorship
Jim Prevor’s Perishable Pundit, November 17, 2006
One of the consistent themes we have dealt with here at the Pundit, almost from our inception, is leadership. It is the one constant that applies across all the issues that confront the industry. We’ve dealt with issues of industry leadership here, here and here, and today we have another letter on the subject:
The Pundit appreciates Don’s very kind letter. We each contribute as we can, and we are proud that the Pundit has developed into a forum for industry leadership to debate, discuss and question the great issues that confront us collectively.
What is interesting about leadership is that it requires a certain amount of heart. A company can order its employee to serve on a board or to run an in-house training program, yet you can’t order someone to be a leader or a mentor, because the key thing that defines a leader or a mentor is the way others perceive you.
The industry is now filled with training programs, honors and much more to train and celebrate leadership. Yet, true leadership is bound to be just beyond the reach of any training programming.
After all, can you really train someone to be passionate? And can anyone really inspire others if they are not?