Leadership of Self
Who, along with her husband, Heber Kapp served as the fireside speakers of the
October 7th, 2011 reunion of the
BYU Former Student Officers Society
[Editor’s Notations have been added for additional clarity in reading. Variations in text were used for emphasis in delivery]
I. INTRODUCTION
Heber and I feel honored to be with you today. I pray for the spirit as I speak to you who were leaders, are leaders and will always be leaders. As we are well aware, “membership in this church is a call to leadership.”
Considering what each of you have done, are doing and will yet do in your leadership responsibilities ….I am reminded of the story in the Wizard of Oz when one of the characters announces that “…someday they are going to erect a statue to me in this town.” Aunt Em responds, “Well don’t start posing for it. There is work to be done.”
Yes, there is work to be done. And following a most historic conference we realize there has never been a greater need for powerful, righteous, dedicated leaders, grounded and rooted in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with courage, determination, vision, inspiration and revelation.
II. LEADERSHIP OF SELF
HEBER AND I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN AND PRACTICE LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR MANY YEARS. IT GOES WITH THE TERRITORY .
I’d like to share a very important lesson or principle I learned while serving in the Canada, Vancouver Mission. It was a turning point that gave me new insight into the importance and essential nature of leadership of self. Heber enjoys this story more than I do.
We were traveling along the quiet Koka Holla Highway on our way to a zone conference. Heber asked, “What are you thinking?” I didn’t tell him at the time but I was troubled. The secretary in the office let the phone ring several times before picking it up. I felt this was a reflection on the efficiency of our office and our reputation. This concerned me. In answer to Heber’s question I responded, “I don’t know why it has to be so hard. We have both been presidents.”
“Maybe that is the problem. We only need one president.”
I guess the thought had not really occurred to me.
I wanted to solve the problem. He wanted to fix responsibility and accountability where it belonged.
This provided for a change of focus, on my part. A fresh look. A great opportunity to learn about leadership of self.
Maybe the most challenging calling after all.
III. KNOWING WHO WE ARE AND WHOSE WE ARE is essential to effective leadership
Leadership of Self is a sacred trust with far reaching consequences, that began before this mortal life and will continue after, according to our self direction and self motivation while here.
Pres. George Q Cannon reminds us, “We are the children of God and as His children there is no attribute we ascribe to Him that we do not possess though it may be dormant or in embryo we are his sons and daughters.” Think of that!
The attributes of leadership are within us.
He further tells us, “we had our parts assigned to us even as the Savior has his assigned to him.” Gospel Truths, Vol. 1.
Your birth at this particular time during the winding up scenes on this earth was foreordained in the eternities before the world was for a sacred and glorious purpose.
Bishop Keith McMullin at a temple presidents seminar some time ago suggested that we might go out some starry night, look up into the heavens and ask, “Why me? Why now? Why here?”
In the words of President Spencer W. Kimball, “Jesus knew who he was and why he was here on this planet. That meant he could lead from strength rather than from uncertainty or weakness.”
1V. WE WERE BORN TO LEAD. IT IS WITHIN US.
During our pre-mortal time we made promises and covenants to keep during this brief time of mortality where we would have an opportunity to magnify gifts and talents, our callings, AND FILL THE MEASURE OF OUR CREATION.
There was a time in my young life when this weighed heavily on my young mind:
If being smart here gives you an advantage in the world to come and you weren’t born smart then the Lord must not love you as much.
We read in the scriptures,
“If a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
Knowledge comes from diligence.
Intelligence comes from obedience. (D&C 130:19)
THE LORD LOVES EACH ONE OF US REGARDLESS OF OUR GPA SCORE.
I have a firm testimony that when we are committed to being diligent and obedient, the knowledge and intelligence will be sufficient to do what we came to do.
In the words of
Elder Niel Anderson, “YOU KNOW ENOUGH”
It is within you.
In the novel The Chosen by Chaim Potok. The Jewish father cries out to the master of the universe in behalf of his son who has a brilliant and capable mind. The father says, “A mind like this I need for a son? A heart I need for a son, a soul I need for a son, Compassion I want from my son, righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer and carry pain, that I want from my son, not a mind without a soul!” The son speaking for his father says, “He taught me to look…inside myself in company with my soul.”. . . His father was probably saying, “Son, it is within you look inside.” (The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Simon and Schuster, 1967)
Our Father invites us to SEEK HIM and then listen for the whisperings of the Spirit for confirmation. Jesus said, “Behold the kingdom of God is within you. If with all your heart you truly seek me you shall surely find me …” (Luke 11:9). This is AT THE VERY HEART AND CORE of leadership OF SELF.
TO FIND HIM, TO KNOW HIM
AND TO FOLLOW HIM
It is our heart, our soul, our compassion, our righteousness, and our capacity to endure, to keep going and lead the way as an effective and influential leader that we are able to do what we came to do. TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE WITH CONFIDENCE AND COURAGE, RATHER THAN COMPETING AND COMPARING.
Ralph Waldo Emerson GIVES AN INTERSTING PERSPECTIVE ABOUT OUR PART
“There comes a time in everyman’s education when he arrives at the conclusion that envy is ignorance and imitation suicide. He must take himself for better or for worse as his allotted portion. And all the good earth be full of corn no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but by the toil bestowed by him upon that plot of ground given to him to till. The power within him is new in nature. No one knows what he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
What each must do then is all that concerns us individually, not what others may say. That rule which is difficult to follow in actual and in intellectual life, is the sole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is even more difficult because there are always those who think they know your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the opinions of the world and in solitude to live after your own. But the great person is the one who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.“
And what about your plot of ground given to you to till. Will there be an abundant harvest because of seeds planted and nourished that will be passed from one generation to the next. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
‘And what of our generation and the next?
They cut desire into short lengths
And feed it to the hungry fires of courage
Long after, when the flames had died,
Molten gold gleamed in the ashes.
They gathered it into bruised palms
And handed it to their children
And their children’s children Forever.
Vilate Raile, in Asahel D. Woodruff, Parent and Youth (Salt Lake City: Deseret Sunday School Union Board, 1952), 124; also in Selected Writings of Gerald N. Lund, Gospel Scholars Series (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999), 402-3.
It is in our solitude that we find ourselves
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There is one person with whom you spend more time than anyone else, who has more influence on you than anyone else, and who has more ability to influence your growth one way or another for good or for bad. THAT CONSTANT COMPANION IS YOURSELF.
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