by Glenn Capelli

Cecil John Rhodes died in 1902 and amongst other things was the founder of the diamond company De Beers. After his death his Rhodes Trust establish The Rhodes Scholarship an international award for study at Oxford University.

Since then there have been a bucket load of famous Rhodes Scholars including the 1945 Nobel Prize winner Australian Howard Florey (the penicillin man), former PM Bob Hawke (Scholar 1953) and a 1975 Scholar in former Carlton Premiership Captain (and ex Head Boy of my old High School Churchlands) Mike Fitzpatrick.

However, my favourite Rhodes Scholar is not a politician, scientist, merchant banker or even footballer. My favourite Rhodes Scholar is the man who wrote the song Me and Bobby McGee – Kris Kristofferson.

I love Kris because he cannot only perform academically, he can also perform with:

• A guitar
• A mop - he was a janitor at one stage of his life
• A gearstick - he once drove trucks for a living and
• A stamina in that he has lasted in the music industry for decades

Kris Kristofferson is not only a Rhodes Scholar he is a Road Scholar too.

My figuring is that in today’s world the Rhodes/Roads mix is a good blend. Way back in 1995 the Enterprising Nation Karpin Report into Australian Leadership and Management Skills talked about the need for the T Skilled worker. This worker not only has deep specific, technical skills (the perpendicular part of the letter T) but also great broad skills (the horizontal part of T).

Broad skills include:

• Communication skills
• Empathy
• A breadth of learning
• Creative Thinking Skills

Broad skills are the stuff of Road Scholars; people who can get by in any given situation, people who can connect with others, people who are versatilists. A versatilist being a ‘person who can be a specialist in a particular discipline while at the same time be able to change to another role with the same ease’. In short, part Rhodes Scholar and part Road Scholar.

So master your Road Scholarship – learn something wide of your usual field, connect with folk who think differently than you, be curious beyond your own discipline and if ever you are busted flat in Baton Rouge – or anywhere else – have the Emotional Smarts and breadth to bounce back.

Glenn Capelli is the author of Thinking Caps book and radio pieces as well as being a top Keynote Speaker. www.glenncapelli.com. You can contact Glenn at glenn@glenncapelli.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 4:16 pm and is filed under mind. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.