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A couple of weeks ago, as you can read here, it was our honor and pleasure to take part in a major event. Ever since then, we’ve been thinking, even more than usual, about leadership: what it is, and how to achieve it.
Consider the roster of speakers at that event: politicians, athletes, writers and media figures… people who would seem to have very little in common, except that their ideas have led to great accomplishments, and they have inspired, and continue to inspire, others to drive themselves to achieve more. A person in a position of power may command others, but that’s not leading. A leader leads by example, and draws followers who see in that example a way to improve themselves. A leader inspires followers to become better, stronger, wiser, deeper… in short, to realize their own potential for leadership.
Leaders inspire. How do they do this? With language.
Even putting this recent event aside, we’ve taken part in several projects with global initiatives and NGOs, in which our translations were instrumental in developing teams, fostering positive international relationships, and encouraging growth on corporate and individual levels. Some genuinely inspiring texts and stories have come into our hands, and it’s a thrill to think of bringing these inspirations to a wider audience, through the simple fact of making those texts readable.
This is nothing new – there have been translators for as long as there have been writers. What’s new is how far we can reach out into the world now. And that’s not a royal we. You can reach anyone you want to reach, and we can help you get there, with a little assist from technology. At the Leadercast Live event, our interpreters were dealing with the words of speakers both present and distant; due to the political atmosphere around her personal appearances in the wake of her Nobel Prize win, Malala Yousafzai addressed the audience in a pre-recorded video. In-person and recorded speeches, all being preserved and simulcast around the world… and in a set of quiet rooms half a mile underground, watching and listening via live feed, six interpreters with headsets relayed those words to eager foreign audiences, in terms they could understand, as they were spoken.
Does this sound overly enthusiastic? Possibly. Communication technology is so varied and omnipresent today, it’s easy to forget how impressive it still is, compared to how things were only ten years ago, let alone twenty (one of the most jarring things about these photos of old shopping malls? no smartphones!). You might take being able to Skype or FaceTime someone in China from the US, in seconds, for granted.
We don’t take that technology for granted. It’s something we’re passionate about. And if you’re looking to sow the seeds of leadership among your global teams, you should be, too. Translate your documentation, of course, but don’t stop there. Make the most of the available tools to train your multilingual team effectively, and let us help you take that message to them, in their own language. Or languages.
Where do you want to grow? That’s up to you – we’ll go where you lead!
