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Joakim Noah, Kevin Brady And Bray Wyatt Have The 'It' Factor Of Leadership

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Every political party, civic organization, team and business firm could learn some valuable lessons in leadership from three persons in very diverse fields – basketball, politics and professional wrestling: Chicago Bulls Center Joakim Noah; Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas and WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt.  Three clues in identifying the elusive ‘it’ factor in leadership are brought out by each.

Joakim Noah: Sorry, Lebron James and Kevin Durant fans – the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the NBA plays in Chicago .  He isn’t the most talented or outstanding player in the league but he is clearly the most valuable and more importantly the most influential player on any team. By that I mean Noah is having not just an impact through measurable production in points, rebounds and assists but unlike any other All-Star, he is a psychic force for his team, willing them to victories they should not be obtaining through effort and passion.  He impacts the crowd in a way similar to the symbiotic relationship between the Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks and their fans. To borrow the subtitle of Mark Wiskup’s book ‘It Factor,'  Joakim Noah is the one ‘people like, listen to and remember.’  If New York Knicks’ star Carmelo Anthony does leave for Chicago, it may not be because of the talent of Derrick Rose and the coaching genius of Tom Thibodeau but due to of Joakim Noah’s leadership qualities.  Joakim Noah's laser-like focus on just playing hard is transcendental.

Congressman Kevin Brady.  For nearly two years now, some highly intelligent political acquaintances have been trying to convince me that Rep. Kevin Brady is the second coming of Jack Kemp, capable of resurrecting the Republican Party’s growth wing.  I consistently reject the comparison.  But not because Kevin Brady doesn’t have an ‘it factor,’ it’s just not the one his advocates have been trying to sell me on.  Rep. Brady lacks the individual persona or ‘interestingness’ that excites the electorate but he displays the temperament of a captain with enough intellectual charisma to build bridges between diverse and disparate wings of the Republican Party (as I've written before, the GOP has been without a strategic Captain for nearly 20 years). Rep. Brady though seems to understand that moderation and compromise are not ideological weaknesses but paramount negotiating skills.  This comes across very strongly in his recent ‘Newsmakers’ interview on C-Span.  If Kevin Brady were in the music business he’d be an executive producer or A & R – the person who glues the collaborative project together but largely out of the view of the public.  His stance on monetary policy and qualities of pragmatism may make him a strong Secretary of Treasury one day but his pursuit of the powerful House Ways and Means committee in 2015, which has authority over tax-writing,  may be even more significant in returning the GOP to more dynamic messaging, in time for the 2016 election.

Bray Wyatt. You couldn’t find a better combination of intellectual charisma and dramatic performance in Hollywood or Broadway right now ( I won't be surprised if HBO reveals some connection between the Wyatts and the Childress family on 'True Detective' ) .  I met Bray Wyatt recently and found the unity of his humility, curiosity, penetrating thought and enthusiasm exceedingly rare.  His unnerving ‘on-air’ philosophy is no act and our spontaneous conversation - touching on Dr. King, Charles Manson, Jay-Z, Che Guevera, the Nation of Gods and Earths and the political philosophy of Eric Hoffer was as enjoyable as it was unusual.  I left our meeting thinking I’d met a once-in-a-decade personality – the rare individual capable of combining professional lineage (his grandfather is pro wrestler Black Jack Mulligan and his father, Mike Rotunda) without relying on it (most people don’t even know his family pedigree) with an inquisitiveness of mind and comfort in his own skin, which can’t be taught.  It can be cultivated but you either have ‘it’ or you don’t.  At a time when the company's bottom line revolves around unveiling a new network and pulling off Wrestlemania 30 – it’s just good business for the WWE to build a storyline pairing the face of the company, John Cena, with Bray Wyatt   – the former proving his leadership qualities for years while the latter’s emergence suggests he’s capable of the same.  Perhaps the highest compliment that could be paid to him is what a WWE representative said to me in a side conversation, “(Bray Wyatt) is one of the few people in this business who can still cause me to emote.”  That’s the ‘it factor’ at its highest level – the penetration of the head and the heart.

The principal problem of the electorate lies in resolving the tension between growth and distribution.  It is also the basic struggle of any organizational unit – from the family to the firm.  The challenge for every group is not just to find ideas and solutions that bring balance to the struggle but more importantly, identify and nurture persons who have superior abilities to not only represent or symbolize these ideas and solutions but move a critical mass to act on them.

My sense is that Joakim Noah will bring the Bulls a ring; Rep. Brady will return the GOP to a growth message and Bray Wyatt will serve as a valuable bridge between profitable market segments for the WWE.

Time will tell but if you’ve got ‘it,’ you’ve just got it.

- Follow Cedric on Twitter