Amazing leadership is everywhere …

I met Selvam in India, where I was speaking at a conference last week. He lives on the coast just to the south of Chennai on the Bay of Bengal. Before the tsunami of 2004 hit this area, Selvam was a fisherman. The tsunami took away his boat, his livelihood, his house and several members of his family. This was a typical story of tragedy in his village, as it was for the whole affected area. But Selvam’s response was not typical.Far from being overwhelmed by the tragic wave that took away the life he knew, he used it to transform his own future and that of those around him. He determined to do something about it for himself and his community that would minimise the horrors should anything like that happen again.

First, he got a menial job at a local hotel that had survived the wave. He used his earnings to train as a lifeguard for the beach and became the hotel’s chief lifeguard. He set up a training course and trained over 60 volunteers up and down the coast. These became the volunteer network he set up and trained to deal with any further disasters. He set up a school, too, to teach children how to swim, and it is still going strong.

Some years later, a local dam broke. By a horrible coincidence, sitting in the path of the flood waters was a village founded by villagers from the coast who had moved inland to escape the dangers of the sea …

Within 24 hours of the burst, Selvam had activated his network of volunteers, arranged the loan of 10 boats, organised road closures and effected the rescue of over 2000 people from the flooded village – there were no fatalities.

Selvam exemplifies the quality of powerful, inspirational leadership that surrounds us in all our communities, if we were only ACTive enough to seek it out, to ask the questions to increase our Awareness and enable us to Connect with the Transformational possibilities all around us.

Selvam had purpose, empathy and the desire to make a difference. When the moment came, he was there, ready.

Will you be ready when your moment comes?

LeadDirect is an online leadership development programme to help you be ready when you moment comes click on www.lead-direct.com and scroll down to have a look