Question: What can Maya Angelou’s life teach us about leadership?
Answer: A whole lot — and then some!
Maya Angelou taught us much about leadership. Here are three wonderful lessons we learned from observing the extraordinary life of Maya Angelou!
First: Know yourself and others!
Knowing Maya’s story should inspire you to know yours and to share it with others! Everyone has a story — and in the corporate world it’s never a good idea to assume others know you and your story. Tell it! Also, don’t assume you know the stories of those around you — what challenges they’ve faced and what they’ve overcome — seek them out. In so doing, perhaps it might make you reflect on the many things you don’t know about the colleagues you work with and how their “stories” influence who they are at work — just as your story influences you and helped shape you as a leader. Sharing with each other, even in small ways, is a brilliant way to understand and connect with others at work and create a culture of trust — a “shared space” where people can prosper and excel.
Watch this video to learn more about Ms. Angelou
Second: Expect change and know when and how to deal with change!
To quote Maya Angelou: If you don’t like something, change it, If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
Leaders are bold and strong, but not wasteful of their energy. They work to change what they can and should and when something cannot be changed, savvy leaders shift their thinking about it so as not to demotivate themselves. This is an amazing leadership lesson. Knowing when to let go of issues that are (at least currently) not changeable frees up energy to work on what can be changed.
Third: Keep Learning and Help Others to Grow and Learn!
Awareness of herself and awareness of others was another of Angelou’s legacies. Maya Angelou figured herself out and understood the effects of her own hardship and loss. Importantly, she did not stop there — she took all she learned and kept learning and used her gifts as a writer, poet, activist, mentor (she mentored Oprah), and teacher/college professor to reach millions of people and make them more aware and awake to injustices and opportunities for their own growth and change.
86 when she passed away, many will miss her constant evolution. At every age Maya Angelou discovered new ways to do great things. Happy in her own beautiful skin, she listened powerfully to others. That is why she modeled her quote about people remembering how you make them feel. She made everyone whose lives she touched feel not just better, but inspired. What could be a better lesson for all of us?
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Additional Insights
- Difficult as it is to choose the best of many wonderful videos, this one of Maya Angelou sharing what her best advice has been wonderful. Even listening for 2 or 3 minutes will inspire you.
The Best Advice Dr. Maya Angelou Has Ever Given — and Received
- Again, it is difficult to choose one or another of Maya Angelou’s books or poems. But we think this American classic will inspire “as long as people read”
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Ask and Acknowledge