▲ Hong Myung-Bo is giving a lecture to KU students. Photographed by Jeong Ji Hyun

On October 9, at 1:30 P.M., Hong Myung-Bo (’87, Physical Education), the head coach of Korea’s national football team for the 2012 London Olympics, gave a lecture at Korea University’s (KU) Inchon Memorial Hall. This lecture, part of the Office of Academic Affair’s University+ Program, was planned in order to cultivate the sensibility and creativity of KU students. Anyone who wished to participate was to register online.

The topic of Hong’s lecture was “Requirements for a Global Leader- Humanism and Communication.” He talked about his typical leadership, which led our national football team to win the bronze in the 2012 London Olympics. “If I worked as coach simply for my personal honor, our team could not have gained a good result. However, only because I had passion in soccer, our team was able to improve,” said Hong. Moreover, he told the audience about his own way of effectively communicating with his players. While he controls every small detail of the athletes when they are on the field, he does not touch their private lives once they are off the field. He said he did not want to make the athletes feel suffocated.

After the lecture came to an end, there was a Q&A session in which the questions were submitted beforehand online by students. The students who had their questions selected were each given a soccer ball signed by Hong. Besides the questions selected beforehand, students were also allowed to ask questions freely after hearing the lecture. “I was truly inspired by Hong’s words on leadership. I thank KU for providing to us such a wonderful opportunity,” said Hong Se Jin (’10, Sociology).