Spotting the Leaders

This is a story my Fripp Associate David Palmer, PhDtold at our recent speaking skills class. Hope it makes you think and act like a leader.

It was 1952. The Korean War had been going for three years...and the North Koreans were short of resources, especially soldiers.

Both sides continued to take POW's, but it took money to build high-security prison camps...and a lot of soldiers to guard them.

After studying the problem for a number of months, the North Koreans discovered an innovative solution...that worked. New POW's were put in a large, open camp and watched carefully for three days. Then 2% of the prisoners were cut from the group and transferred to small, high-security prison camps. The rest were transferred to large, low-security camps, thereby saving money and especially soldiers.

Who were the 2%? The leaders, most likely to try to escape. Were they just the officers? No, officers and enlisted men.

And how could they tell, just by watching? Behavior.

And what drove that behavior? Knowledge, values & passion.

Leaders don't simply accept their fate, they want to do more, learn more, and be more!

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

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