Strong Leadership with a Heart, Diane McFarlin
Q: What is your definition of a great leader?
A: A great leader is someone who sees a better way, and inspires others to see it.
Q:You are a great leader in the Sarasota community. How did you become a leader here in Sarasota?
A: In some ways I was invited into community leadership by virtue of my role at the Herald-Tribune. When I became publisher, I inherited a responsibility to not only lead one of this community's largest institutions, but also make it a role model for community service. That is combined with a genuine passion for this community, what it has been and what it can become.
Q: What was your journey to leadership like?
A: It started in first grade when I was elected student council representative. That is when I began to perceive myself as a leader. It was later when I came to understand that true leadership involves a great deal more than winning elections. It involves integrity, compassion, energy and vision.
Q: Who are some leaders that you admire, whether local or international, alive or deceased?
A:In my own industry, I admire the late Katharine Graham for her leadership of the Washington Post Company at a time when women were expected to defer to their fathers or husbands, and Punch Sulzberger for his quiet certitude and for taking a courageous stand in publishing the Pentagon Papers. Outside of my industry, there are many leaders I admire for their own unique style of leadership, from JFK to Martin Luther King to Margaret Thatcher to Al Gore. All have them have flaws, of course, but have made significant marks on this world in one way or another.
Q: What message do you have for all leaders, both aspiring and established, underground and in the limelight?
A: Three things: 1) Follow your passion, 2) Always follow the Golden Rule, and 3) Listen.
Q: As Steering Committee Chair of GLI, you have made a tremendous statement regarding the potential of aspiring grassroots leaders to bring about positive change in our community. What initially attracted you to the Grassroots Leadership Initiative?
A: I wanted to help raise the visibility and effectiveness of people who have so much to contribute, but are not always heard. The Sarasota/Manatee community seemed in danger of becoming too elitist. Leadership was "circular," meaning the same people were talking to the same people all the time. We needed greater diversity and collaboration.