I take my inspiration where I can find it, and this time it is from an episode of Star Trek Next Generation. Please bear with me as I briefly recount the episode, because I believe it is very appropriate to many people who want to be a leader but do nothing to become one.
In this episode,Tapestry, Captain Picard is severely wounded and his artificial heart is damaged. Picard drifts off into a white light where he finds Q, the meddling, omnipotent, troublemaker. Q asks Picard if he has regrets and Picard eventually says that he was too brash, arrogant, and reckless in his youth. In fact, that is how he came to need an artificial heart. Picard took on three large, nasty tempered beings known as Nausicaans. In a flash back we witness one of the Nausicaans as he runs a large knife through Picard’s back, through his heart, and out his chest. The young Picard laughs at the site of the knife blade sticking out his chest as he falls to the ground.
Q grants Picard a second chance to be less reckless and arrogant. Then Picard sees his life as it would have been, which is a low level science officer. No one notices him and the senior officers have a difficult time recalling his name.
Picard asks Troi and Riker to give their assessment of him. They use words like, “thorough”, “reliable”, and “punctual”. Picard asks why he is not considered command material. Troi says, “You’ve had lofty goals but have never been willing to do what is necessary to attain them.” Riker says he needs to, “Take chances. Stand out in a crowd. Get noticed.”
Picard talks to Q and Q says that this Picard, “Drifted from one assignment to the next without a plan.” “Played it safe and never got noticed by anyone.” This Picard took none of the risks that Captain Picard had.
How about you? Are you a risk taker, do you take on assignments that are outside your comfort zone? Do you take any kind of ownership, especially when it technically is not your responsibility? Do you fix things you find that are not up to standard even if you didn’t make the mistake? Do you hold your peers accountable?
If you don’t take risks, if you don’t take ownership even (especially) when it is not assigned to you, you are not command material. Act like a leader if you want to be one. Do the job you want before you have the title, and when the job is available, everyone will know that you are the right person for it.
Don’t drift along and just take what is given to you. Don’t end up regretting missed opportunities as Picard did when he saw what might have been: “I would rather die as the man I was than live the life I just saw.”
