• Think through questions about leadership and public service.  Use these Discussion Questions to write about your own opinions about leadership in public service.  Develop several questions of your own about leaders and leadership qualities in public service.
• Evaluate the experiences of leaders in the public service.  Use the questions from activity I. to think cricitally about the experiences of the leaders profiled below.  Watch the video clips below and write down answers to the questions.   
• Develop your own list of the qualities of leadership. Read quotations about leadership from well-known public servants and generate a list of leadership qualities you value.
  
  

  ---

Donna Brazile, Democratic Nat'l Committee   [ Watch Clip ] Donna Brazile has put her energy and ideals into managing campaigns for those running for public office. First inspired to political action by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Donna Brazile, at the age of 8, began to work with others to pursue ideals such as justice and freedom. Later, as a volunteer in a local council member's campaign, she went door to door promoting the candidate's campaign promises to pave the roads and build a playground. Her candidate won, and as a result she got her first job as a coach on the promised playground.

[ Watch Clip ]   Steve Burke, President, Comcast Cable Steve Burke, the president of Comcast Cable, offers his insights on leadership from the perspective of the private sector. He tells students that his school experiences did not make the biggest impact on his career-rather, his summer job experiences did-but that doing well in school will open up more opportunities. Offering some insight about what it takes to succeed in and with a company of over 50,000 employees, he emphasizes the importance of teamwork and explains the three qualities he looks for in potential employees: amicability, passion and honesty.

Juan Williams, NPR, Senior Correspondent   [ Watch Clip ] NPR's Juan Williams first discovered his future professions through the various newspapers his mother brought home. By reading the different sportswriters' sometimes contradictory accounts of the same baseball game, he realized that journalists had a "ticket to the world." Eventually, he saw newspapers as an opportunity to understand how power worked in the world. He lauds journalists in history who used the pen to illuminate injustices- in education, health care, politics. According to Juan Williams, journalists are idealists and reformers because they ask their readers to pay attention and respond.