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Lesson #5: Work Quickly
Lenin was fond of a Russian expression “The slower you go, the further you get.”
Forget Lenin.
The faster you go, the more momentum you build.
Act swiftly and magic happens.
Act slowly and your best efforts will get lost in an endless stretch of time as enthusiasm
dwindles. I’ve seen it time and time again in the
federation system, and it’s a bane of all life in bureaucracy.
Trust me.
I was born in one of the greatest bureaucracies in the world.
We raised most of the money for our first Israel emergency campaign and organized a
150,000 person rally on the Mall in the first few days.
Contrast that to the slow and careful planning that we did for an engagement campaign.
We processed everything and hired consultants and reached out to all of our stakeholder
populations and by the time we had done all that, no one really cared anymore.
Passion moves.
It also dies.
Move with it.
Lesson #6: Take Risks and Make Mistakes
We live in a time where we have little tolerance for error.
We don’t create work cultures that allow for mistakes as the ultimate learning tools
and create the capacity for forgiveness.
I learned that from a special person: Michael Gelman.
I remember clearly when we were deliberating about Super Sunday and moved it to December
and back again.
I asked Michael what he thought and he said, “We won’t know until we try.”
And that was the way that he approached so many aspects of his leadership, a willingness
to experiment and learn from success and also from failure.
Dede Fienberg was also a great model of this and I thank her for taking the risk of hiring
in her words “a mad Russian” and … for never letting me forget it!
Lesson #7: Find a Mentor
Leaders can’t operate alone.
They need teams.
They need teachers.
Seek out mentors.
I was blessed in these many years to find one such mentor: Bob Kogod.
Freud argued that the way that we grow up is in imitation of those closest to you.
Looking up to someone gives you aspirations.
Ethics of the Fathers tells us to make a rabbi for ourselves.
Go out and find someone who can bring out the best self in you.
For me, Bob Kogod was that person. Bob, you are wisdom personified and you have
taught me the lessons of optimism and self-restraint – and, man. do I need more lessons in those.
Lesson #8: Zero in on What’s Important
One of the most important lessons that Bob taught me is how to zero in on what’s important
and let go of the rest.
You can’t do it all.
You can’t even do most of it.
But you can do some of what you set out to do if you’re hyper-focused on what’s important
and you don’t let other things get in the way.
And when I zero in on what’s most important, I come up with a few people.
Alisa – my wife who is also a mentor to me.
She is my conciliegri – my closest and wisest advisor who has brought so much goodness and
happiness to my life.
I thank my mother who is here this evening.
I wouldn’t be here this evening were it not for a sacrifice she made so three decades
ago to leave her home to create a better life for her children in another land.
And lastly, to my beautiful children some of whom are here and others who are in their
beds.
You are my essence.
Lesson #9: Be Inspired, Stay Inspired
What do I mean by this?
When you feel inspired it’s like riding on top of the surf, being carried by something
very powerful that is greater than yourself.
It’s as much outside of you as within you.
If you want to lead well, only commit yourself to a cause that inspires you.
My favorite definition of leadership follows Peter Drucker’s simple wording:
A leader is someone who has followers.
Without inspiration you can’t lead because no one will follow you.
This was a lesson taught to me by Erica Brown – the muse of my musings, my co-author
and my executive coach.
Make no mistake. This job is hard.
Riding a wave isn’t a good metaphor completely because a wave crashes, and I’ve seen that
happen to so many people who make their business the Jewish community.
They crash because so many things sap our inspiration: politics, negativity, apathy,
incivility.
Little things like not getting calls returned or people who just love to hear themselves
speak.
They wear away at our inspiration.
And that’s why this last lesson, the most important one of all is not only to be inspired
but to stay inspired – to stay on top of that wave and ride its thrilling momentum
and then find the next wave and ride that one.
To do this job well you have to be inspired again and again, it has to connect powerfully
to your neshama, your soul.
For me, to borrow Jonathon Sacks’ words, I see myself as a letter in the scroll, a
part of an extended family with a collective mission and that inspires me day after day.
Those are my nine lessons of leadership that you have taught me.
If I thought hard enough I might have come up with a hundred.
But nine is good for now and more than enough to master.
Thank you for being the classroom in which I learned them and for your compassion and
dedication to the mission of the Jewish people.
Take these lessons with you as I will take them with me.
Good night.