By Patrick Burles - @PatrickBurles on Twitter

Martin Luther King III and Mark Messier highlight Greatness in Leadership event

Mar 7, 2017 | 2:03 PM

LETHBRIDGE – “I have a dream…”

The simple and powerful statement, made by Martin Luther King Jr., was used as the guiding point for this year’s third Greatness in Leadership “Inspiring Greatness” Management Development Day at the ENMAX Centre.

To help punctuate that message, King’s oldest son, Martin Luther King III, was one of the guest speakers for the event. During a sit-down with the media, following his presentation to a number of community leaders and youth, King touched on what he sees as the key elements to being an effective leader.

“What it takes is certainly determination, it takes courage, it takes commitment. I think one has to be, not just inspirational, but you’ve got to be able to, as I say, build coalitions, that’s what’s needed now more than anything else, people coming together to work on issues,” explained King.

“The final thing is you’ve got to be constantly in dialogue,” he continued. “I mean, you can’t resolve any problem if you’re not communicating. A great leader is not just a great communicator, that’s one of the key things that must exist, but he or she is really able to build coalitions, build a base of support.”

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King elaborated on the importance of communication and bringing people together, saying it is becoming more important every day, as the world continues to get smaller.

“We have got to come together as a world community and figure out how to co-exist, without destroying either person or property. That doesn’t mean that we can’t disagree on issues, we can have a lot of disagreements, but we have to learn how to disagree — as my father used to say — without being disagreeable, that’s a hard task.”

Also highlighting the list of speakers, was NHL great and six time Stanley Cup Champion, Mark Messier. The former Edmonton Oilers star is one of the game’s all-time greatest leaders, with the National Hockey League going so far as to name it’s annual leadership award after him.

When asked what makes a leader, Messier acknowledged that it can be hard to pin down.

“That’s the secret sauce, that’s what everybody’s trying to find out, and why we have conferences like this, so we can discuss and share each others experiences,” Messier said to the assembled reporters. “And I don’t think there’s any one thing that you can point to that would determine a good leader or not. I think it’s a combination of things and through your own experiences and failures and success, you establish your own personality and your own way of doing things.”

Messier credits his leadership abilities to those who helped him find his way in life and hockey as a child, starting with his father. He explained that the statement, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ is very true, adding that coaches and teammates helped build him into the person he is today.

Having received that support, Messier says he now enjoys attending events like this as a way of paying it forward — especially with young people who are still searching for their passion in life — and to share his message for success.

“It’s really ultimately about creating a vision and building trust with your people, workers, players, teammates, whatever field your in. For me, I learned a long time ago, I wasn’t a good enough player, I don’t think anybody’s a good enough player to win alone — certainly not in hockey — and I needed the full cooperation and participation from my teammates in order to be successful. And so, that’s what I tried to do throughout most of my career, whether I was a captain or an assistant or not, just trying to make everyone feel part of the solution and feel good about their contributions, no matter how big or small, and share a dream.”