I’m sitting in Halifax Airport, after spending some time with the folks at Atlantic Central Credit Union and the amazing credit union people from across the Atlantic region. I love this part of the country; as I arrived yesterday, the Air Canada passenger agent here in Halifax greeting the plane said “welcome home” as I got into the terminal. I love Vancouver, it is my home, and I acknowledge that Halifax does have a certain seductive quality for me!

I left the conference early, to get to the airport, and had therefore to miss the end of a presentation by my friend Jody Burk of East Kootenay Community Credit Union, another of the guests speaking at the conference. Jody was speaking on collaboration and early in his remarks he commented on the difference between Big ‘L” leaders and Small “l” leaders. Big “L” leaders are the CEO’s of organizations, or the leaders of national or regional initiatives. Small “l” leaders are the leaders of departments or teams. And of course, Small “l” leaders can be anyone, at any time, who takes a stand, speaks up, or otherwise leads in their family, team, community, organization, city, province/state or country. As Jody said, the Small “l” leaders are the ones who roll up their sleeves and actually move the plan forward.

So this week, let’s honour the Small “l” leaders who make all of us look so good.