Leadership and the Danger of "I" and "Me"
Leadership matters. Leadership matters in all sorts of ways. Leaders give us hope. Leaders help us have the courage to make challenging choices and decisions. Leaders are selfless. Leaders promote others, care, have empathy and don't belittle those who are different than themselves. Leaders acknowledge their success only in relationship to the overall growth and improvement of those who they lead.
As a school and district leader for the past 22 years I have worked diligently to try and improve the school communities that I've served. The goal has always been to work in collaboration with all stakeholders for better outcomes for kids, families and communities. Through each of these roles some degree of success and progress has been experienced. I've never believed for even a moment that "I" held the key, magic potion, or silver bullet.
Leadership matters and what I know to be true about the leaders that I've watched in my lifetime succeed in serving their respective communities and organizations is that it's never about the leader. "I" and "Me" are words seldom spoken.
Collective goodness, growth, improvement and caring, compassion and empathy are the characteristics that effective leaders are able to organize or marshal, and through implementation of specific strategies and structures....lead for the common good.
Last evening, I was able to listen to one of the most dark, deceptive and dishonest public speeches of my lifetime. It scared me...and that's exactly what it was designed to do.
Scare, lie, deceive and offer false hope without any specific plan. The irony, from my perspective, is that the religious right has largely endorsed this orator. (descriptor offered generously) As a kid in various church communities, these actions....scare, lie, deceive and the offering of false hope were descriptors consistently assigned to false religions or the occult. That's ironic.
I sincerely hope that ALL Americans are asking questions about, "how?" I sincerely hope that ALL Americans are reflecting about what they know/believe to be the attributes of effective "leaders."
Following are some of my favorite leadership quotes that have shaped my belief structure.....
"Individual commitment to a group effort-that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." Vince Lombardi
"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." Helen Keller
"Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability." Patrick Lencioni
"I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition." Jean-Francois Cope
"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." Henry Ford
I aspire to be and want to follow a leader who is LESS about "I" and "ME" and more about us and we! #ALLmeansALL
As a school and district leader for the past 22 years I have worked diligently to try and improve the school communities that I've served. The goal has always been to work in collaboration with all stakeholders for better outcomes for kids, families and communities. Through each of these roles some degree of success and progress has been experienced. I've never believed for even a moment that "I" held the key, magic potion, or silver bullet.
Leadership matters and what I know to be true about the leaders that I've watched in my lifetime succeed in serving their respective communities and organizations is that it's never about the leader. "I" and "Me" are words seldom spoken.
Collective goodness, growth, improvement and caring, compassion and empathy are the characteristics that effective leaders are able to organize or marshal, and through implementation of specific strategies and structures....lead for the common good.
Last evening, I was able to listen to one of the most dark, deceptive and dishonest public speeches of my lifetime. It scared me...and that's exactly what it was designed to do.
Scare, lie, deceive and offer false hope without any specific plan. The irony, from my perspective, is that the religious right has largely endorsed this orator. (descriptor offered generously) As a kid in various church communities, these actions....scare, lie, deceive and the offering of false hope were descriptors consistently assigned to false religions or the occult. That's ironic.
I sincerely hope that ALL Americans are asking questions about, "how?" I sincerely hope that ALL Americans are reflecting about what they know/believe to be the attributes of effective "leaders."
Following are some of my favorite leadership quotes that have shaped my belief structure.....
"Individual commitment to a group effort-that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." Vince Lombardi
"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." Helen Keller
"Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability." Patrick Lencioni
"I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition." Jean-Francois Cope
"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." Henry Ford
I aspire to be and want to follow a leader who is LESS about "I" and "ME" and more about us and we! #ALLmeansALL
Thank you, Andy,for your diligent thoughtfulness!
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