At Howe many of the faculty and staff
labeled the school a "preparatory" school. While I understood the basic
theme behind those statements, I came to understand more of the "preparatory"
lessons they had taught at Howe later in college
and in my banking career. We received such
guidance throughout our days at Howe, whether they related to
academics, sports, military science, or life lessons in general.
Recently at
a University of Nebraska Q & A,
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates responded
to questions from students ,
with one asking what skills they deemed most important for a
successful career. Mr Buffet's immediate response was not
related to financial statement analysis, or even advanced technological
skills, it was public speaking skills. Immediately my mind
returned to the speech class and speech meets we had at Howe with Mr
Hicks, and his frequent lectures on the importance of public speaking
skills. As with any good lesson, there's more to it than just the net
effect. Mr Hicks drilled us on the preparation that is necessary,
including practice and research. These are important in any successful
project, but essential in public speaking.
The small student population at Howe
allowed us to compete in
numerous sports, many of which we would not have had the opportunity to participate
in at larger schools. In doing so we created mutual experiences
for each other that are memories of a lifetime, including
practicing and learning as a team, and
winning and losing as a team.
In the barracks the majority of the leadership was provided by students,
not faculty. There we developed the ability to understand and value
each others differences, and use each others talents, temperaments and
convictions as tools to achieve and exceed team goals.
Each
time during my career I have been responsible for developing a team, I
have sought people with specific talents important to the task at hand,
with only secondary thought as to the ability of all these people to
work well together. Leadership is the ability to manage such a group to
perform the designated work so that the mutual goal is met (if not
exceeded) and it is my task in these situations to guide the team in
that respect. It is rare to find organizations that do well at helping
students develop such skills, but Howe's dedication to leadership
development is in its second successful century.