"Giuliani: Country in good hands"

Mike Szostak
The Providence Journal
June 27, 2003

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SOUTH KINGSTOWN - Hailed as hero almost everywhere he goes, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani rejects the label.

"I do not think of myself as a hero," he told 1,100 young people at the U.S. Scholar-Athlete Games at the University of Rhode Island last night.

"I think of myself as an administrator or as a manager who put together a team. A hero is someone who overcomes fear to accomplish something, to get something done. A firefighter. Someone with a speech impediment who works on it. Someone who has a depression and has to function, pull themselves together."

Later, in a brief meeting with reporters, Giuliani elaborated.

"In a position of leadership, you get blamed for things other people do . . . and you get praised for things other people do. I feel humbled by it. So many friends did heroic things, and I got credit for them."

His legacy defined by his actions in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Giuliani has become a leader's leader, or, as URI Provost Beverly Swan said in presenting him for an honorary degree, "America's mayor." He has written a bestseller on leadership, a book he started long before 9/11 and put aside to practice crisis management. He addresses business conventions on the subject he appeared in Providence earlier this year.

But Giuliani can also reach out to kids whose crises are making friends or making the team. Stepping from behind the lectern, he established an immediate rapport with high-school kids from the 50 states and several foreign countries and elementary students participating in the Rhode Island Scholar-Athlete Games.

"You can feel their enthusiasm and promise and possibility. They have so much time to accomplish things," he said later.

As mayor of New York, he enjoyed visiting schools. Last year he spoke at the high school in Shanksville, Pa., where the hijacked Flight 93 airliner believed bound for Washington, D.C., crashed on 9/ 11. Later that day he addressed an audience at West Point.

"Seeing those young students and then the cadets, I felt the country is in good hands."

The kids at URI gave him a standing ovation when he entered the Ryan Center to the strains of bagpipes; another standing ovation when he was introduced with other dignitaries, including Governor Carcieri and Atty. Gen. Patrick Lynch; a third when he received an honorary degree from URI President Robert L. Carothers; a fourth when he rose to speak, and a fifth an hour later when he finished answering questions ranging from heroism to his appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Giuliani offered his audience, which included volunteer staff for the games as well as members of the public, six tips for effective leadership, whether in government, business, school or on a team.

-- Core beliefs. Effective leaders, he said, must develop a philosophy of life from reading and studying, not sitting around and waiting for it to come. He cited Ronald Reagan as a leader who never strayed from his beliefs.

-- Optimism. "Nobody follows a pessimist. People follow hopes, dreams and aspirations," he said.

-- Courage. He defined courage not as the absence of fear a firefighter who enters a burning building and is not afraid is insane, he said but the management of fear. He said athletes learn courage from having to perform under tremendous pressure.

-- Relentless preparation. He mentioned a judge who taught him to spend four hours of preparation for every hour in court, football coaches who diagram a series of plays for the start of a game and Tiger Woods, who while leading a recent U.S. Open, remained on the practice tee until 9:30 at night.

--Teamwork. "The only job I did was to assemble a team. Any complex situation, it's not about the leader. It's about the team he or she has assembled. He mentioned President Bush's cabinet and its strengths, which balanced his weaknesses.

-- Communication. "Tell people what you think. You have to explain it to them. Some people have skill at that and some don't, but you can develop it. It's talking to people, sharing yourself with them."

Finally, Giuliani said, the really effective leader "understands that we are talking about human organizations, human beings . . . In an organization, you have to be there for people when they are in trouble, when they're suffering, or when there's a terrible tragedy."

He turned to Carcieri and Lynch and noted their work after The Station fire. The governor and his attorney general received the inaugural Dux Magnus (Great Leader) Awards from Dan Doyle, executive director of the Institute for International Sport. Carcieri said he was honored and humbled, and accepted for all the people who played a role in helping victims and their families. "There is no question in my mind that the state came together. Everyone pulled together to do the job."

Lynch thanked his staff and called the families of The Station victims the heroes.

Giuliani arrived in Rhode Island late yesterday afternoon by private plane from Teterboro, N.J., to Quonset Point, and attended a reception at the Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame. House Speaker William J. Murphy lauded his "courage and great dignity" and said that "the world recognizes the great things you did for our country." Then he presented him a one-of-a-kind Rudy Giuliani action figure designed and manufactured by Hasbro. The figurine has a Yankees cap and a Red Sox cap perched on each shoulder. Hasbro chairman Alan Hassenfeld is chairman of the Scholar-Athlete Games.

Giuliani was grateful for the recognition but said "it belongs to the people who work in the Police Department and Fire Department and all the New Yorkers who were so brave."

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