Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of words. He used them to inspire, to rally, and to ultimately bring change. The change he brought is the reason we remember him on this day every year.
Many of his words are broadly applicable, well beyond the worlds he occupied.
This quote strikes a nerve for me as we work with many founders and leaders:
A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Leading is knowing where you want to go and working to get others to want to go there too. That could be your team, your board and investors, your customers, or the entire world.
Molding is the word I like most in that quote. It describes the work of leading correctly. You can’t will people to follow you. You can’t expect people to follow you. You need to work to get them there.
