Why We Need Leaders

Coaching Your Kids to Be Leaders: The Keys to Unlocking Their Potential
by Pat Williams

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We live in an increasingly dangerous world-a world that often seems to be drifting toward a dark and uncertain future. Our civilization seems hemmed in on every side by the threat of economic catastrophe, ecological destruction, racial and ethnic clashes, religious warfare, nuclear, biological, and chemical terror, cyber attacks, social and political instability, poverty, urban blight, crime, drugs, alcoholism, ignorance and illiteracy, population pressure, and unknown threats from emerging technologies. "If today's kids do not become leaders, where does society go?" asked Dr. Larry McCarthy, associate professor at the Stillman School of Business Management, Seton Hall University. "We constantly need to replenish the world's coterie of leaders. The current leaders move on, move up, or die off, yet the world's problems continue to grow. Where do we turn, then, if we have no new generation of leaders ready to step up to the challenges of our world?"

My friend Jay Strack, president of Student Leadership University, is America's number one authority on developing young leaders. "We have been hit between the eyes as parents, educators, and coaches," he said, "with the fact that our kids are woefully unprepared to deal with real life. Corporations are spending millions of dollars training young people how to lead. It's a huge industry. Our universities and the military are realizing that the young people who stream into their halls and barracks are not well prepared to lead. We have produced a generation that is neither deep nor wide in leadership ability. Many parents are beginning to realize just how ill-prepared their kids are to face life's challenges and make good decisions."

Let me tell you about a young leader named Danny Rohrbough. Danny was fifteen years old, a high school freshman who loved computers, stereos, and big-screen TVs. He often helped out his dad in the family electronics business. He eagerly looked forward to getting his driver's permit.

On one warm spring day, Danny Rohrbough and more than four hundred of his fellow students were eating lunch in the high school cafeteria. Suddenly, the students were startled by the sound of gunfire just outside the building. Two male students in black trench coats were stalking the grounds, guns raised, firing at students. They killed a seventeenyear- old girl who was eating her lunch. Then they shot a young man sitting next to her eight times, leaving him alive but permanently paralyzed.

The two killers then went down some stairs and entered the cafeteria. When the students in the cafeteria saw the armed boys, they fled. The killers tried to detonate some butane-powered bombs in the cafeteria, but they failed to explode.

Danny Rohrbough was in the crowd of students who made it out of the cafeteria, running for safety. But unlike the other students, Danny stopped, went back, and held the door open so that his fellow students could get out of the cafeteria faster. He stood there holding the door until one of the two killers saw him, took aim, and shot him three times. Danny staggered a few steps down the walk, then stumbled and fell.

He died on the sidewalk, just a few steps from safety. The gunfire and screams continued. The gunmen killed twelve students and a teacher that day. It was Tuesday, April 20, 1999, and the school was Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

Several days later, Danny Rohrbough was remembered at his funeral as both a leader and a servant, a young man who held the door open, showing his fellow students the way to life and safety and a future. He laid down his life for his friends. The minister at his funeral said, "Danny might have lived if he had made a different choice. Yet he chose to stand and hold the door so that others might make it to safety. They made it. Danny didn't."

A high school senior named Nick also spoke at the funeral. He said, "I never knew Danny, but I wish I had. I owe him everything." Then, his voice choking, he raised his eyes toward the rafters and added, "Thank you for saving my life."

Danny Rohrbough could have chosen safety. He chose leadership instead. He demonstrated boldness, character, and a servant's heart. He held the door so that others could walk through and live.

The world is a dangerous place. That is why we need more young people like Danny Rohrbough. The world needs young people who are willing to lead, willing to serve their generation, willing to boldly stand at the crossroads of history and hold open the door to the future. That is the challenge before us. As parents, coaches, teachers, and mentors, we have the task of inspiring and motivating a generation to take Danny Rohrbough's place at the door so that they can lead our world to hope, to life, to the future.

So turn the page with me. Let's learn together how to change our world by changing lives. Let's discover what it means to coach our kids to be leaders.

Copyright © 2005 by Pat Williams

About the Author

PAT WILLIAMS is the senior vice president of the Orlando Magic, a renowned speaker, and the author of How to Be like Mike, The Magic of Teamwork, and Go for the Magic.