Extra Credit - The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes & Posner, Part 5

     As I preach and preach the idea of community, I keep emphasizing the need for the leader to develop a sense of comfort and safety, but I was never able to go into details on how to go about this. I'm glad I got to Part 5, without it, I might have continued doing my stating without explaining. The most important part of chapter 9, "Foster Collaboration" is the idea that a leader's supporters need not only trust and feel safe with him/her, but also to feel comfortable with their other colleagues. It almost seems that trusting in one's leader but not one's community members is nearly impossible, but a leader needs to be able to notice and be attuned to those relationships. That's why it's so hard to be a leader: you can't pay attention to just yourself and the interactions you're directly involved in; you have to pay attention to everything, because believe it or not, as a leader you are involved in every interaction - however direct it happens to be.
     It would be silly, though, to assume that every single member of a team will get along all the time: some couples just won't mesh. However, there's a difference between disliking someone and not being able to trust them. "To get extraordinary things done, people have to rely on each other. They need to have a sense of mutual dependence - a community of people in which each knows that they need the others to be successful" (233). A leader needs to be able to (in KP's words) "facilitate relationships." Like in a discussion, the facilitator does not act as the mother of the group - making sure everyone gets along - but just acts as the supervisor - making sure everyone in heard and no one is disrespected. That is the important part of a community understanding: if there is distrust or fear in the constituents of other constituents, nothing can be accomplished successfully or completely. KP puts it sharply, "Knowing how other people feel about issues enables you to incorporate aspects of all the relevant viewpoints into a project and demonstrate to others how their ideas have been heard and included" (232).
     I've already spoken once about my grandpa's lesson "you have the power to make your day incredible." In chapter 10, "Strengthen Others," KP claims, "Accountability results in feelings of ownership, that you - not someone else - have the responsibility for what's going on around you" (258). This applies, obviously, to my grandpa's teaching, but I want to apply both of these to the idea of leading people. It should be stating the obvious when I say supporters look up to a true leader and mimic his or her actions. This is what happens with children's role models - they are leaders who, in some cases, may not even know they're leaders. This is what happened with the relationship between myself and my grandpa. I look up to him simply as the human being that he is and so, inadvertently, mimic his actions. I may not even realize it, but I perform and conduct myself in a similar manner to how my grandfather conducts himself simply because I view him as a leader. With children and their role models, the picture is clearer: a young boy dresses like Spiderman because he wants to be Spiderman. He wants to exhibit the same traits that Spiderman does: the same goes with children and firemen, policemen, their parents and guardians. And leaders.
     This is where the leader must be careful, because he or she is always leading whether or not he/she realizes it. Every action and phrase echoes in the ears and hearts of their supporters. This is something I must be especially attuned to as an officer of a women's social club. Every single word and action - or inaction - I display is seen and recorded by the women I lead with.
     On a related note and in congruence with the above passage on accountability, if I can allow these women to understand that this club is not mine, or our President's, but their's: if I can allow these girls the realization that this club exists for and because of them, perhaps they can understand the importance of being an active member and sharing their voices.