"How do you lead when you’re not in an explicit leadership position" This is one of the topics suggested for a future Practical Coaching Tip.

What luck! Barely 12 hours after receiving that suggestion I get a mail from a good friend with whom I graduated years ago who has sent me a link to J. K. Rowling's Commencement speech at Harvard. J. K. Rowling gives a fantastic demonstration of how we can do this - you can view it and download the MP3 here http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

I would recommend viewing it and not just because I'm a fan! There's a lot to this speech and I want to go back and analyse it some more but she does so many things a good leader does. She connects (and allows us to connect with her), she empathises, she inspires, has vision and uses storytelling to do all of these things - a great leadership tool. She has been given a platform to speak to young people as they are going out into the world and has chosen, not to squander the opportunity, but to make a positive impact - like all good leaders do.