Rudy Giuliani Addresses VARBusiness 500 Crowd

Few leaders have been tested quite the way former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been during his tenure in office. Widely credited for his effective leadership in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, Giuliani recently appeared on behalf of VARBusiness at its Annual VARBusiness 500 Awards dinner. Speaking to an overflowing crowd at New York City's Rainbow Room, Giuliani argued that leaders are made, not born, and that leadership is a quality one can actually work to acquire. In his remarks to VARBusiness 500 executives, Giuliani identified several individuals whom he thought exemplified leadership, including presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, football coach Vince Lombardi, individual firefighters he'd met and his father. He offered the following thoughts on leadership:

* Know what you believe. Without that simple vision, even the most capable people will be "tossed around every day" by events and be unable to focus on goals.

* Expect and envision success. Giuliani noted that no one is likely to follow a pessimistic manager. Instead, he suggests people are more likely to follow those who offer a vision of hope, a dream and a sense of optimism.

* Demonstrate courage. Good leaders take appropriate risks. Take firefighters as an example. With proper preparation and planning, leaders can handle even the most extreme situations.

* Prepare relentlessly. No one in New York foresaw 9/11. But as the rescue operations began, Giuliani realized the decisions he made during that crisis were based on existing plans that the city's emergency-management teams already had in place for fires, hazardous- materials accidents, crowd situations and emergency medical triage. Giuliani says the work the city did in anticipating emergencies and rehearsing responses to them helped tremendously. One of his first bosses, U.S. Judge Lloyd F. McMahon, always stressed to his law clerks that for every hour they were in court, they needed to prepare for four hours. That philosophy helped carry Giuliani and New York through their darkest hours.

* Assemble a top-notch team. Good leaders build good teams, Giuliani pointed out. Great leaders have the wherewithal to build great teams. The difference is that great leaders typically add the skills and capabilities that they themselves don't possess, whereas lesser individuals often tend to hire people like themselves. Giuliani prides himself on the diverse, highly skilled teams he has built during the years.

* Love what you do, and love the people around you. A willingness to spend time with your team, communicating your vision, motivating, teaching and supporting them when things go wrong are characteristics of true leaders, he advised. "Weddings are optional, but funerals are mandatory," he recalled his father saying to him. Interesting words to lead by, to say the least.

--Joe Caponi