The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham

Instead of despairing over their age, they were “open, willing to

take risks, hungry for knowledge and experience, courageous,

eager to see what the new day brings.”

Listen Intently
“I remind myself every morning: nothing I say this day will
teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by lis-
tening,” said Larry King, the famous interviewer and a close friend
of Billy Graham.
Billy certainly shared that trait with his friend. When we inter-
viewed Graham biographer William Martin, he told us that lis-
tening was one of Billy’s great strengths. “He never hardened into
the place where he assumed, ‘Here I am. I’m Billy Graham, and
you and your ideas can bounce up against me.’ No, he was always
willing to grow, like a ripple that is constantly moving outward in
an ever-growing circle. He showed that in
his willingness to cooperate with more and
more different groups.”
“Billy wants to learn,” said Martin. “He
has the ability to give you his full attention
when you’re talking to him and is generous in his response to
people. That’s very appealing.”
Jay Kesler told us, “The great issue of our day for leaders is
how to lead in a postmodern, pluralistic, multicultural environ-
ment. How does one maintain convictions with civility? Billy Gra-
ham has done that. This is to me the largest leadership quality
needed in the modern world.”
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or
eighty,” said Henry Ford. “Anyone who keeps learning stays
young.”

Learn from Unlikely Sources
Roald Amundsen was a national hero in his native Norway.
He gained worldwide acclaim as an explorer in being the first per-
son to reach the South Pole and the first to touch both poles in a
single lifetime.

The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham

Learning is not attained by

chance. It must be sought

for with ardor.

ABIGAIL ADAMS