On Thursday, April 5th, 2012, the Kappa Tau Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. welcomed ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith to be a guest speaker for its annual Kappa Tau Lecture Series. Many students, staff, and faculty of Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS, would flow into the Grand Ballroom located in the Kansas State Student Union.

The audience would not be met with disappointment, as they were astonished by Smith’s charisma and intellect in his lecture adequately titled “The Road to Great Leadership.” During his lecture, Smith spoke of his journey to becoming a widely renowned sports analyst as his hard work to maintain his current role on ESPN as a NBA analyst commonly seen on the sidelines covering both regular-season and playoff games.

Smith would go on to state, “Do you know how people want my job! Some of you guys probably want my job as we speak, but I’m not going to make it easy on you!” He spoke to the audience on the importance of one striving to demonstrate work in his or her profession that would deem that individual to be more valuable than the contract that he or she signs and/or salary that he or she paid.

Smith touched on oppositions that one can experience to his or her leadership, referring to an estrangement between him and LeBron James upon Smith’s criticism of his lackluster fourth-quarter performance in the 2011 NBA Finals on his show First Take that he co-hosts with fellow commentator Skip Bayless.

Smith subsequently explained the importance of separating personal feelings from one’s profession while operating with good morale. Upon the conclusion of the lecture, Stephen A. Smith, ingrained the Kansas State community with a desire to avoid complacency in one’s collegiate and post-graduate pursuits.