Today’s Leadership: Combining Early 20th Century values in the 21st Century

Everyday I take some time to observe – whether it’s observing people, animals, the changing cloud patterns. I try to take a step back and realize that there’s more to life than traffic jams, and getting my latte correct. Everywhere around me there are leaders. All of them stand out for various reasons, but they all embody some of the same characteristics as well.

I’ve often found that the leaders that shine above others demonstrate qualities of a bygone era. True leaders are not looking to see who’s watching. That’s not really their concern. True leaders really do lead by example, say things like “I would never ask of anyone something that I’m not willing to do myself”, and then they follow through with it. They do not say please and thank you or hold a door for you because they want something from you. They say and do things because it’s the right thing to do. They recognize that without each other, we’d all have nothing.

I chose to say “early 20th century values” because it almost seems as if towards the end of the 20th century all the little things that matter most began to fade. And the early 20th century was a time when characterisitcs like integrity and being a person of your word meant something. Contracts were formed with handshakes, not signatures on a line. I’m sure that there are places in the world where these ideals never waivered. I cannot say that this is universally true, however. I’ve observed it and experienced it for myself.

I have also observed and experienced the changing in the times that we live in. Economically, we’ve returned in the most fundamental ways to the early 20th century. A time when hard work was something to be proud of and “back to basics” was unheard because it was just how we lived our lives.

The best and most rewarding example that I can give to all of this is Twitter. It is a place where people worldwide, regardless of position in a company, their industry, and the size of their bank account get together every day to learn from each other and to share their lives. There are examples of gratitude, acceptance, appreciation, sharing, friendship and family with every tweet that crosses a feed. It is here that the best values of the early 20th century come alive. I’ve been told that spending time blogging and micro-blogging is a waste. I completely disagree. Some of the greatest people I’ve ever met have come from the phenomena we call Twitter.

Venues like Twitter have reminded us what’s important in life. There’s a rather large sense of community that is evident with every login. We created the world that we live in, and it’s only fitting that we also shares our lives.

It is one of my most sincere hopes that the early 20th century values that have been revived in our current times will never again waiver or dissolve.