No matter the #role, no
matter the #task, the
best #leaders know that nothing is beneath them. #QuoteADay #Day274 #edchat #edu
It doesn’t matter what
your role is as a leader, everything is potentially within your purview. As leaders, we have to remember that we
aren’t leaders just to share our expertise.
We’re leaders because we also can help others when they need us most.
A quick story (and by no
means am I implicating that I am a “great” leader):
Yesterday, one of our
staff members was really strapped for time.
In effect, she was doing the job of two people (one of our other team
members has just gone on maternity leave, and her leave replacement is just
getting up to speed). In addition, she
was just asked to take on something else.
Knowing this, I took on her role of stuffing and organizing folders for
a workshop today. It was a task I was
happy to assist with, as it needed to get done, and my colleague was too busy
to be able to do it (or to be able to do it as she normally would).
At the end of the day, she
said, “Fred, I just want to thank you for taking care of those folders for
me. I felt like I would never get to
them. I responded, “No thanks
necessary. That’s what we do here.”
And it needs to be. If, as leaders, we aren’t willing to take on
any job or role, then what are we teaching those we serve? A leader might not be able to be everything
to everyone, but the best leaders can be anyone at any time.
As we consider what we
want for our future leaders of society, one of those “wants” should be to
cultivate a population that never feels as if they can’t (or won’t) do
something, simply because of the position they hold.
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