Learning to lead: a challenge to today's tax professionals.

• Author: Zelisko, Judith P.

First, let me offer my congratulations to each one of you. It is never easy to balance the demands of work, family, and the classroom, and that is particularly the case with a curriculum as rigorous as this one has been. You are truly to be commended for improving your own knowledge, enhancing the general level of expertise in our profession, and increasing your value to your colleagues, companies and firms.

So, why did you do it? Nothing better to do with your Fridays and Saturdays ... to improve your chances for a promotion or your value in the open market ... or perhaps something deeper? And now that you have completed the program, what are your responsibilities and what type of professional are you going to be? Anyone who completes a program as demanding as this one has learned. The question is: Are you ready to lead?

America's 35th President, John F. Kennedy, understood the linkage between learning and leadership. On that fateful November day in 1963, in comments shortly before he took his place in that doomed motorcade, President Kennedy said that "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."

Even if you are too young to remember JFK, you know of him and of his soaring words from the history books. You know that in his inaugural address he spoke of the torch passing to a new generation of leaders and you also know that his grave at Arlington National Cemetery is marked with an eternal flame. Upon your completing this program, the challenge I pose to you is the one he posed to America 45 years ago: Are you willing to take up the torch? Can you, will you be a flame for your organization? Can you, will you be more than just "the tax guy," but rather an integral, respected member of your management team? You wouldn't be here today if you weren't bright, ambitious, and hard working. My principal challenge to you is to be more than that: It is to be more than an expert; it is to take up the torch of leadership.

What does it take to be a tax leader? Do you have to alternately be Clark Kent, mild mannered tax guy, and then TAXMAN or WONDER WOMAN--able to run faster than a speeding IRS agent and to leap LILOs and SILOs in a single bound? No, I don't think it has to be that dramatic. Besides, you likely would look funny with a "T" on your chest and doubtless would have trouble finding a phone booth to make the transformation. To be a leader, I believe you must have certain traits and characteristics, and you have to approach your job in a certain way.

Be in tune, be in touch. To be a leader, you must know the tax environment in which you work and live, and more important, you must be attuned to changes in the business...