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Leadership from Charles Xavier

"There's something much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability."

~Robert Half

Last Thursday was a rather eventful day. Well, actually, every Thursday is eventful because Thursdays are my datenights with my wife! But this particular Thursday was different. The last couple datenights have taken place in the house. Don't ask me why; they just have. This time we made our way out to downtown Silver Spring to visit one of our favorite restaurants; Eggspectations (Get the Crabdip!) and checkout X-Men: First Class. That same night was Game 5 of the NBA Finals so I had to DVR that. Again, don't ask me why, but we didn't get home until somewhere after midnight-ish and I watched the ENTIRE game 5! Needless to say, Friday was pretty tough for me.

Anyway, X-Men was one of the best movies I've seen in a LONG time. Despite the rebuttal and criticism I may receive from this from a couple of guys of mine; I'm sticking to my guns! LOL! There were SO many underlying messages in that movie; it was ridiculous! For example, how Mystique and Beast weren't comfortable as themselves and how they kept wanting to change their appearance to humans. Another message was how Magneto couldn't control his telepathic powers because he allowed his anger to get in the way.

The message I'd like to shine light on comes from the meaning of the quote at the very top of this post by Robert Half.

"There's something much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability."

I love this quote because it shines light on what people tend to lose sight of so easily. Everyone wants to give props to the athletes, but what about the systems they were operating in? Those systems came from the mastermind of the coach, the trainer, the developer. Yeah, MJ, Pippen, Kobe, and Shaq are multi-time champions, but what offensive set allowed it? THE TRIANGLE by Basketball Mastermind Phil "Zen Master" Jackson!

The same with Professor X in X-Men: First Class, played by James McAvoy. He set out with Magneto recruiting those he knew had special powers along with potential. Once he got them all together, he did four specific things leaders should take note of:

  1. SOUGHT THEM OUT AND IDENTIFIED POTENTIAL (Recruit)

  2. POURED INTO THEM (Invest/Establish relationship/Train and Develop)

  3. PULLED THE BEST OUT OF THEM (Challenge them to reach their truest potential)

  4. CELEBRATE (Affirmed them when they produced)

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