Rosa Parks, a Special Kind of Leader

Rosa Parks, who died this week, was a special kind of leader.

When she refused to get up from her seat on a bus, and move to the back, just because of the color of her skin, she set up a series of events that changed history.

It wasn’t quite the spontaneous event that it’s often portrayed as — no, it doesn’t seem that she had planned to make her protest that day, but yes, it does seem as though she was prepared to make this protest at some point. And the rest of the black community in Birmingham was prepared to react when such a protest was made — if not by Rosa Parks, then by someone else with community respect who could be an effective symbol.

Being willing to be a symbol, being willing to take the first step, is an important part of leadership.

Rosa Parks’ husband was afraid that she might be killed for taking this action, and he was opposed initially to her being in the spotlight.

But the principles and values were important enough to Rosa Parks for her to take the risks, and so she did.

We may not all have the opportunity to change history to the great extent that Rosa Parks did by refusing to get up from her seat one day — but there are many other opportunities to lead through symbolic action.

Do you have the courage to take the risk when the principles are important?