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Challenging Journey to Inspirational Leadership

William Attardi on August 27, 2025

I’m sure you, like me, have read many books over the years about leadership.  Are leaders born or made?  Answer: YES to both! Just posted a virtual learning session on YouTube and LearnersLive.com is about:

  1. Good to Great by Jim Collins
  2. Extreme Ownership by former U.S. Navy SEALS Jock Willink & Leif Babin

Powerful leadership principles from the battlefield to business and to life.

               

We take you on a challenging journey from being a competent individual to an inspirational leader…..the key word is “challenging”. Competent Individual to Inspiration Leader 

Inspirational Leaders possess certain attributes that distinguish them from everyone else. They anticipate rather than react to change.  Some call that vision. They become essential facilitators of change within their altered environment. They can skillfully communicate the new and technically esoteric with a clarity that leads to understanding and advocacy. Those in their lead execute the plan because they want to.

In every environment, in every company, in every department, in every office, in every classroom, on every team, there are inequities.  Men and women come in all sizes, all levels of acumen, all degrees of competency, skill and talent……..Many times in any organization and often, not of your choosing, you get a diversity of high performers, good performers, weak performers, and those that do not contribute a dime to the performance of the team. When it comes to standards of performance, you have to decide how much are you willing to tolerate.  Inspirational leaders put together teams of exceptional talent and high standards of performance.  In the book Extreme Talent, the former Navy Seals say it bluntly: “There are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”  If your team fails, it’s on you the Leader.  Get your arms around that concept…..

Inspirational Leaders have certain skills and they are good at it, rather, they are expert at it.

  1. Set Goals… get buy-in by everybody!
  2. Opportunities – vision & execution
  3. Problem-Solving –
  • Internal: to prevent damage to the business
  • External: to solve customer pain points
  1. Decision-Making – do the right things

 About LearnersLive
LearnersLive.com is a platform dedicated to continuous learning and professional growth. Focused on leadership, marketing, and management, the site offers virtual courses, expert interviews, and curated industry resources. With new content added regularly, LearnersLive.com empowers individuals and organizations to embrace change through ongoing education and insight.

The Statue of Liberty was made with copper but due to oxidation, it turned green.

When the “Lady in the Harbor” first arrived in New York in 1886, she didn’t look like the mint-green icon we know today. In fact, for the first twenty years of her life, she stood as a towering, metallic beacon of reddish-gold. Designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and engineered by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the statue was a gift from France to America. To build her, Bartholdi chose copper for three practical reasons:

  • Malleability:It could be hammered into elaborate, thin sheets.
  • Weight:Copper is lighter than stone or bronze, making it easier to ship 350 individual pieces across the Atlantic.
  • Durability:It was strong enough to survive a 27-day ocean voyage and the harsh winds of the harbor.

When she was unveiled on October 28, 1886, her skin—made of 300 copper sheets roughly the thickness of two pennies—shone with a bright, metallic brown luster. The transformation from “penny-colored” to “patina-green” wasn’t planned. Bartholdi actually expected the statue to age into a deeper, darker red. However, the unique environment of New York Harbor—a mix of salt air, moisture, and industrial pollution—triggered a process called oxidation.

The Timeline of Change:

  1. 1886–1900:The bright copper dulled into a dark, muddy brown.
  2. 1903:The first hints of a light green crust, or “patina,” began to appear.
  3. 1906:The color change was so controversial that Congress nearly stepped in. They appropriated $62,000 to paint the statue back to its original color, but the public protested, calling the idea “sacrilege.”
  4. 1910–1920:The statue was a patchy mix of brown and green until 1920, when the oxidation was complete, leaving her entirely teal.

While we now view the green color as iconic, it actually serves a vital structural purpose. The layer of verdigris (the green patina) acts as a protective shield. It seals the copper underneath, preventing the metal from further corrosion and weathering.  By the time the color fully changed, a new generation of immigrants had arrived in America seeing a green statue.