Friends,
 
Saturday evening we held the annual celebration of the Governor's Service Awards.  The fabulous Fox Theater in downtown Detroit was teeming with leadership stories, as forty finalists in eight different categories were feted for their efforts to build communities from the western edge of the Upper Peninsula and all the way across the Lower.
 
The show stoppers - quite literally, for it took about 10 minutes for them all to get on and off the stage - were the members of the Wolverine Harley-Davidson HOG Chapter #1332.  Many of these folks pride themselves on being out of the box, as individuals.  They love their independence - their freedom to hit the open road, which symbolizes a broader desire to be free to live their own way. 
 
The Chapter as a whole has gotten way out of the box of what most of us would think a Harley club would be about.  They won the Governor's Award for the "Exemplary Community Service Program."  They do four huge charity rides a year, often with over a thousand riders and raise between $20,000 and $50,000.  They have given financial support to a variety of causes such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Toys for Tots.  Recently they have organized an event which reunites children with their former foster families, and the cool thing about it is that they offer the kids transportation to the party, on the back of a Harley.  (If RFL were a little more tech-snazzy, I'd link to the video clip with happy little kids posing like tough bikers!)
 
The real life results have been wide and profound for the HOGS and the people and charities they have served, yet the leadership lesson may seem overly simple.  Steven Covey boiled it down to two words, in the first of his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:  Be proactive!  The HOGS are innovating, creating from scratch, and doing what few would expect of them.  What might you do this week that's out of the box, unexpected of you, perhaps surprises people, but expresses some desire you have to make a difference in the world you are in?  You've got to be proactive to...
 
Lead with your best self,

Dan

Daniel Granholm Mulhern
First Gentleman
Office of the Governor
State of Michigan
(517) 241-0534

"Seeing the magnificence in all people -- dedicated to their fullest success."

Copyright 2006 Daniel Mulhern.  I distribute RFL without charge to people with an interest in leadership, and grant permission to these recipients to distribute copies of these works to personal contacts for non-commercial purposes only.  All other rights are reserved, and requests for copying and distribution of these works may be made to FirstGentleman@Michigan.gov.  The views of this and other RFLs reflect my personal beliefs and may or may not reflect the views of my wife, Jennifer Granholm, or any other officials of the State government. 
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