Written by a family father, by any man catapulted into roles he would never have imagined. This book is the report of those who, in an instant, found themselves making decisions of great importance. It is an honest attempt to give a new meaning to the leadership, an abused but crucial term for our relationships, for work, for the future and for the common good.
Why did you feel the need to write this book?
«I think the theme is very current. Beyond the Anglo -Saxon word that I don’t like, it has to do with the daily life of our days: it is to be decided whether to live a full life or live it as a spectator. The need was to make it clear that if everyone lives their lives fully and does well what they are called to do, even selfishly there is an improvement for everyone. I believe it is a little debated theme in the “right” categories, because it is often used in the company and is full of “guru” who say “do what I say so things change” ».
Speaking of this phenomenon, which in recent years has taken the scene on social networks …
«This text wants to enter a broader debate on leadership worldwide. I say that there are as many definitions of leadership as there are people who talk about it. I don’t care “even if you sacrifice you, you will reach a goal”. The goal is not to help people reach their goals, but help them understand if they are positive or negative. The theme is to understand if the other is an end or a means. The leadership I speak of is in contrast to this Anglo -Saxon vision. My leadership translation is fullness, and I insist on the fact that it concerns everyone ».
Within a chapter it tells difficult personal experiences. Rethinking with those moments, how much changed and what prompted it to overcome the insecurities?
«In the book I insist a lot on humiliations and conflicts. Nobody is exempt from the “slaps” that life gives. These can become an opportunity for a personal revenge, which is negative for me, because it is a sort of revenge. Or they can be, as I try to say, something that matures. They are opportunities to grow and to achieve a fullness that inevitably passes through the blows that life gives you. That immature attitude leads to a malice, where others are a tool, a means and not an end. Those experiences, however, have made sweetness and welcome in me. I remember those humiliations with a smile, as something that has been part of a path ».
Cover of the latest book by Gigi De Palo, Editor San Paolo
For her, a single person can influence many lives. What message would you give to a shy person, who feels insignificant, to make her understand the potential that has to positively affect the lives of others, even with small gestures?
«Everyone in his life has areas in which he is a leader and others in which he is a” follower “. Even the most shy person has his talents. The influence is not just “I show you how it is done”. The influence is also silence. A little there is born with the leadership and you grow up. If she reflects and sees how much her gestures affect the lives of others, she realizes that, even if she believes she does not count, it matters much more than you imagine. If a nurse in a hospital smiles at a patient, he changes his life. Everyone has an opportunity, and the title is “the leadership for everyone” because we all have it. If I, who started very badly, I am the father of five children and I did some things older than me, it is because I understood that I could make my contribution ».
She reflects on employers who often ask to separate family life from the work.
«The uniqueness of the person is the greatest wealth, not the mask at work or in the family. My mediation capacity in associations was not born from innate quality, but from the exercise of living with my wife, where you have to find mediation every five seconds (he says smiling, editor’s note). That experience served me to find the mediation capacity at a political and associative level. We do not think of watertight compartments; We are a single person, and this is an added value. The employer takes on a person in his entirety, and it is not true that I have to leave out of the office what I am at home. It is in the balance of things: we are not pieces of wood ».
In the text he talks about the leadership of the middle class. Why, in your opinion, does this leadership that emerges from the middle class tends to always be underestimated or obscured in contemporary society?
«It is not the world that underestimates it, it is the middle class that underestimates. People in their head think “just bring the salary home, as long as I do my”. They do not want to aspire to so much, but we must all give our contribution. If society is not good, it is not a single fault, but of all of us who are disinteresting ourselves. The middle class underestimates the power it has. Rediscover this role, this power, this power, is something that changes history and improves it ».
You say that work can be a tool for fulfillment, which is not so obvious among people. How many people see it only as a source of income and not of contentment?
«Very few people manage to do the job they dreamed of. The sad thing is that this demoralizes them. Rediscover the social value and the impact of your work for the common good helps to live it with more awareness and energy. A school collaborator is not just one who washes on the ground. I met members of ATA staff who were the light and joy of the boys, who gave words of comfort. Your work takes on a very different connotation. A shop assistant has this role: if it makes school clean, generate beauty and different behavior even in children. If he thinks well, he understands his impact. There are no Serie A and Serie B works. I believe that everyone must find contentment in their work, otherwise you live a sad life ».
