The Power of Rachel Beckwith

Exerpted from Simon Sinek's Blog dated July 27, 2011: A few days ago, a 9-year-old girl named Rachel Beckwith died in a pileup on I-90 in Washington state. Her spinal chord was severed and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her life.


June 12th was her last birthday and for her birthday Rachel told everyone that she didn't want any presents and she didn't want a party. Instead, she wanted her friends to donate $9 to Charity Water." Her big crazy goal," said her pastor, "was to raise $300 so that 15 kids in Africa would have safe, clean water." At the time of her death, she was $80 short of her goal.

Inspired by her generosity, Rachel's church publicized her goal on their website...and the donations started rolling in.

When last I logged on, Rachel had raised over $300,000. And her wish to help 15 people will now help over 15,000 people.

Rachel Beckwith may be the most inspiring 9 year old I know and I'm proud to support her in her dream to give.

If you're interested in helping Rachel's cause, visit Charity Water.

If you'd like to donate to help her parents pay the medical bills, you can visit http://bobnw.org to donate.

May we all raise our children to think of others before themselves. May we all raise our children to by like Rachel Beckwith.

At this writing the fund is at $1,240,833 and growing.

What Makes A Good Leader

Leading others is about FIRST serving others. As a reference, I recommend Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, by Greanleaf, Spears, and Covey. Servant leadership is about working, as a leader, to enable those that you lead to have what they need in order to fully exercise their gifts, talents, and skills in accomplishing the organizations goals. As to those who are a member of the team that is lead by an individual who is truly modeling Servant Leadership, those team members are responsible for helping that leader to have what they need in order to execute to business goals (be successful): this can include information, perspectives, insights, feedback, etc. As an effective leader in my own right, and as someone who serves an individual who models Servant Leadership, I feel impelled to have fierce conversations about goals, objectives, and outcomes in the light of a people centric culture. It IS my responsibility to bring my gifts, talents, and skills to the table and to provide all of the information that I have at my disposal to strengthen my leader's position. This DOES NOT mean that I am a YES person, or coddle to his vanities or feed him what he wants to hear. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THIS IS IN ANYONES BEST INTEREST! As a VALUED member of the team, it is my responsibility, my obligation, and my honor to share what I know, think, feel, and experience. "When the right people with the right mindset come together, you've a championship team."

With regards to Simon Sinek's Tweet: "A team's job is to provide their leader more options. The leader's job is to give his/her team the resources to do so." The options available are about the teams efforts to provide leadership with the input they need to be able to consider all viable options. It is in the role of best serving the team, that the leader willingly and open-mindedly considers the insights and ideas coming from the team. This support structure is SYMBIOTIC in nature and inclusive regarding the importance of the team to the ultimate success and viability of the outcomes.

As a part of an effective team, we must all engage in the kinds of sharing of information and unfiltered dialogue that challenges and strengthens each of us.