Leadership expert and debut author Harold
Hillman PhD couldn’t have been more delighted with the stellar success and
turnout for the launch of his book, The Impostor Syndrome: Becoming
an Authentic Leader, on Monday evening. And he was equally thrilled to
be a published author at last, judging by his beaming smile as he signed scores
of books. Jeremy Eyles from Whitcoulls Downtown was on hand to sell copies and
was run off his feet for the duration, selling out well before the launch
ended.
The Hilton Auckland’s swanky Bellini Bar was
full to overflowing as more than 130 guests, many of them top business
executives, gathered to celebrate with Harold Hillman and pay tribute to a
remarkable leader, teacher, friend and colleague. The room fairly hummed with
lively conversation and laughter as guests happily mingled, enjoying oysters
and fine wines. (I’ve been to many book launches in my time, but none as
elegant or fun. To my mind, Hillman knows how to party and has set a new
benchmark in how to launch a book!)
Andrew Thorburn (CEO, Bank of New Zealand)
was MC for the evening and did a superlative job of entertaining and informing
about Hillman the man and business leader, sharing anecdotes and paying tribute
to his acumen and the high regard in which he is held by so many in the
corporate world. Thorburn highlighted the authenticity of Hillman’s leadership,
his warmth and humanity, comments which elicited ready agreement from the
assembled guests.
In officially launching The Impostor
Syndrome, Margaret Sinclair, Business Partnerships Publisher at Random
House New Zealand, recalled what a dream Hillman had been to work with; “he
seemed almost suspiciously perfect until I realised that this was a man who was
walking his talk – he was showing all the attributes of an authentic leader –
ready to listen to advice and adapt and learn while still sticking to his
principles and the things that mattered to him most”.
In response, Hillman gave one of the most gracious and moving speeches
I’ve ever heard, extending gratitude to the family and team that stands behind
him. He said, “Thank you everyone for being here. This
is what real joy feels like. I believe in blessings and I believe I’m in the
middle of one now. And the real joy is that we’re here because there’s
something about authenticity that compels people together. Tonight is about
celebrating what is unique about each one of us, and celebrating the liberating
force of imperfection.”
Significantly, Hillman spoke with great
affection for his father and the positive role model that he had been,
encouraging he and his siblings to read from an early age. Rather than précis
what Hillman said so eloquently, I will simply share some of his words with
you. “One hundred thirteen years ago, a child named Milton Hillman
was born in a small city south of Atlanta Georgia. Milton Hillman was our
father. He was born 35 years after slavery was abolished in the
U.S. That heinous institution was replaced with a more subtle, but
nevertheless explicit form of racism that made it illegal to educate black
children, particularly in the South. These children were to work the fields,
rather than occupy classrooms. Even the unenlightened oppressors knew that vast
power could be sparked through education. So the premise that sat under their
oppression was that, if you can’t read, you’re less likely to be curious about
alternate realities. So my father was never educated in the formal sense of
anything close to what we know today. But he learned at a very young age that there
must be something in a book that they didn’t want him to know about. And,
like anything that is banned from the hands of a child, his curiosity turned to
an obsession to read books, for there is something about a book that is both
powerful and empowering. And at a very young age, he snuck away, often
unbeknownst to his own parents, to learn how to read.
And that’s a lesson our father
taught us at a very early age. He would put books in our hands, even if he
didn’t read them to us, he would sit Renae and me on his lap and we would look
through the pictures, and he would get us talking about all these cool places
in the world. And for me, those books helped implant a vision in my head,
at a very early age, that life is about living, and living is about exploring
the outer bounds of possibility, and that constraints on what is possible live
largely in our own minds.
So you can appreciate that
tonight, one hundred and thirteen years after his birth and 23 years after he
died, to present to you a book with my father’s surname on it, has special
significance beyond my wildest dreams. And it’s a testimonial to the
power of parenting. If you tell your children they will do great things,
they will probably do great things. To follow my father’s legacy, don’t have
regrets that your voice is more about constraining, rather than enabling, the
possibilities that can take your own children to exciting chapters in their own
life stories.”
And that is what The Impostor
Syndrome is all about. Encouraging us to be ourselves; believing that we
can do great things, even though we’re far from perfect.
Concluding the speeches and formal
part of the launch, Sir Henry van der Heyden (Chairman, Auckland Airport)
remembered when he first met Hillman while working for Fonterra. Fresh off the
plane from New York and sporting an ear-ring, van der Heyden thought that
Hillman wouldn’t last six months. Van der Heyden then proposed a champagne
toast to Harold Hillman, “the man who proved him wrong.”
Report by Sarah Thornton, Thornton
Communications
Author and his proud sister Renae
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