It Seems Like There’s a Short Supply, the Rolling Stones Notwithstanding
I’m talking here about leaders. If you picked up a newspaper (sorry, if you looked at the news online or on TV) it seems we are in dire need of a few leaders. I’ll be honest. I’m talking about the current House of Representatives. You know, the one that has brought the government to a standstill for almost three weeks now. And before you think I’m writing about politics here, I’m not. I’m writing about a group of people (and I really don’t care what side they’re on) that were elected to do a job and can’t seem to follow through on that agreement.
What does this have to do with my being an educator? I believe we have to do a better job of raising up and educating our citizens. Not just so they’ll go to Washington and be a Representative in Congress. So they’ll approach their lives with the confidence to figure out what their responsibilities are and then follow through with them. And that takes a certain amount of leadership.
A lot of the mess in the House these days is the result of electing people who seem to take things very personally. Maybe they have a right to. Maybe they have been insulted or someone made a promise and then didn’t uphold it, or someone doesn’t have the same belief or value system. But is it alright to hold up the bigger need because of that?
Leaders don’t. Leaders think through the problem, identify the need, think about all the people affected, and then they inspire others to help them come up with solutions. They mostly do it in a logical, thoughtful way, without a lot of whining. (People don’t generally see whiners as leaders.) Leaders think about the greater need and see if they can come up with an idea/compromise that will bring that about. And true leaders don’t think about themselves first in the equation.
My focus is on how we raise our children and help our students become true leaders. I think we give them – as soon as possible – the opportunities to look at a problem, talk with them about it, help them sort through solutions, most importantly, with an eye to all the stakeholders. For instance, planning for a family vacation could include everyone’s ideas with gentle reminders that “we want all of us to have a good time,” which is the goal of the vacation in the first place.
Maybe we have family meetings on a regular basis to talk about things that affect all of us. Maybe we let everyone have a voice about where to go for dinner and then help everyone come to consensus. Any conversation that supports our children’s understanding that there’s more than just themselves in the room assists them in keeping a bigger picture in mind. It helps remind them they are part of making sure everyone helps solve the problem or makes the decisions. I believe this is how we grow leaders. We give them a lot of opportunity to practice.
Any chance for a child to offer a suggestion or a solution helps the child grow a confidence in using her voice. It provides him the understanding that his ideas matter in the context of the whole, and it helps everyone understand that in order to accomplish our goals “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try, you get what you need.”
