38 Leading with NLP
Sometimes a designer is a leader. Designers shape our
lives. Look round you and remember that all the man-made
objects you see – buildings, furniture, clothes, cars and other
machines – first began as ideas. Good designers lead the way
in architecture, interior design, fashion and household ap-
pliances while others follow. You may never have met the
architect who designed your house, but they influence your
life every day. Leaders of fashion influence our choice of
clothes, furniture, the music we listen to and the books and
newspapers we read.
Finally there are those leaders who simply provide a role
model. Think of the people who have influenced you the most.
They may have been in authority. They may have had more
knowledge than you. But there was probably something extra
- something personal. They embodied values you admired.
I think a leader is also like a hero. The derivation of the
word ‘hero’ is interesting. It means ‘to protect and serve’.
Usually the word conjures up ideas of courage, saving lives,
maybe winning medals for valour or overcoming impossible
odds. But all heroes, even those from Hollywood movies,
have another, inner task – they have to overcome a dragon
in themselves, they have to go beyond themselves and de-
velop the qualities they need to overcome their task. There
is one sure way of telling the hero in a story – the person who
has learned the most, the person who is changed the most at
the end. Both Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are heroes in
the Star Warsseries of films. They were not heroes at the be-
ginning, but they became so by how they responded to the
challenges they faced. So becoming a leader means under-
taking both an outward and an inward journey – to
accomplish something worthwhile in the outside world,
to inspire others in a worthwhile task and to discover inner
resources that you did not know you had, to become a leader
in your own way.