See the Champion in Others

In 2011, my wife Christy and I traveled to Alaska to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It was a trip we had talked about for years, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to go.

While we were there, we visited Talkeetna, often called the sled dog capital of the world. It sits in the heart of the training grounds for world-class mushers and their racing teams. Alaska is home of one of the most demanding endurance events on earth, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The Iditarod is often called “The Last Great Race.” Each March, mushers and their teams of sixteen dogs race nearly 1,000 miles across Alaska from Anchorage to Nome. The race typically takes between eight and fifteen days, and the conditions are unforgiving. Teams cross frozen rivers, mountain passes, tundra, and forests while enduring blizzards, gale-force winds, and temperatures that can plunge well below zero. With wind chill, conditions can reach as low as negative 100 degrees.

During our trip we visited Sun Dog Kennel in Talkeetna, home to champion sprint musher Kathleen Holden and Iditarod competitor Gerald Sousa. While touring the kennel, they handed me one of their puppies.

Naturally, I pulled the little guy close to my face. He began licking me with that unmistakable puppy breath. But in that moment, something unexpected happened. As I held that puppy, God began to speak to my heart.

There was a high probability that this little puppy’s mother and father had already run the Iditarod. In other words, I was holding a future champion.

Of course, the puppy didn’t look like a champion yet. He was small, playful, and completely unaware of what lay ahead. It would take years of training, discipline, strengthening, and endurance. But one day, this puppy would grow into a powerful sled dog running one of the toughest races on earth with no option for success but to finish.

Standing there with that puppy in my hands, God impressed something on my heart that has stayed with me ever since.

At the time, I was serving as Vice President and Controller at Spire, formerly Alagasco which was the largest natural gas utility in the State of Alabama. I was simply on an anniversary trip with my wife when God used that unexpected moment to change how I viewed people around me.

I began to realize that leadership isn’t just about managing responsibilities or achieving results. It’s about seeing the God-given potential inside the people around you and helping them to see it too.

After that moment in Alaska, I began looking at people differently. I saw my own children differently. I saw my colleagues and employees differently. I began to ask myself a new question: What potential has God placed inside this person that hasn’t yet been realized?

Years later, when I began serving as President and CEO at the Presbyterian Home for Children, that lesson took on a new meaning and fueled my purpose.

Every day at Presbyterian Home for Children, we serve children, young adults, and families who have faced tremendous hardship. Some arrive carrying trauma, instability, or uncertainty about their future. It can be easy for the world to label people by their circumstances. But servant leadership calls us to see something deeper.

Every child, young adult and mom we serve is created in the image of God with immeasurable value and purpose. Our responsibility as leaders and mentors is to help them discover it.

Just like that puppy in Alaska, greatness often begins in small ways. It takes time, guidance, encouragement, and discipline. But when someone believes in you and invests in you, the champion inside begins to emerge.

That moment holding a puppy in Alaska may have seemed ordinary at the time. But it reshaped how I lead and how I see people.

Today, my goal is simple: to help others succeed. Because when our team succeeds, the children and families we serve succeed. And when we help someone discover the potential God has placed inside them, we are doing the work of servant leadership.

Sometimes, all it takes is someone willing to see the champion first.

~ Doug Marshall, CEO of PHFC

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