Exceptional Leaders
When I am working with leaders, I often ask them to think about the best leaders they’ve had in their life so far. Most people can come up with one or two names. These names are not always from formal leaders but from people who have crossed their path and have been instrumental in their development, like teachers, bystanders, peers. These people are exceptional.
Dieter Claus
Last weekend I learned that Dieter Claus has passed away at the age of 79 years. I enjoyed his leadership for four years between 1999 and 2003 when I was working for Henkel in Germany. Dieter Claus was that one-of-a-kind leader.
I once told him he was my second-best leader so far. Why wasn’t he the best, he asked? I told him he should remain ambitious. We had a great laugh about that.
The question is why was Dieter an exceptional leader? The answer is both simple and personal. He helped me see things from a broader perspective, listening patiently to some of my naïve assumptions younger people make when they lack the scars of life. Dieter could create the bubble I needed to grow, remove obstacles, protect me when required, and get the best out of me. Over the years he had remained human, which is not always easy in professional life.
To me, he was not perfect but exceptional.
Exceptional Leaders Never Leave
This text is a eulogy for a man who retired but never left.
And that is what exceptional leaders do: when they leave our path, their legacy has become a part of us. Very often, they do not even realize what they have meant to other people. They are unintentionally exceptional.
Dieter’s death reminds me to try and be exceptional by focussing on what I am good at. It also suggests that we should write eulogies for people when they are alive. Not when they have passed away.
We should write eulogies for people when they are alive.
I am grateful that I have met this exceptional man.
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By using the word exceptional, I refer to Dan Cable’s book Exceptional, which invites people to build their lives on their strengths.
First published on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dieter-claus-exceptional-leader-david-ducheyne/
