Leadership is a Choice

In senior year of high school I gave the “Leadership” talk at a retreat.

I’d been in student leadership positions since 8th grade when I was class president. That part of myself continued into high school, where I was a leader in different student groups, athletic teams, and for the school. I didn’t know much about what leadership actually was back then, I just knew I could do it. All it took was getting over the hump of being uncomfortable being the first to stand up, then having the courage to do what I said I would do. Not too complicated.

When researching for the talk, I came across this TED Talk from Simon Sinek where he said that leadership is a choice. That made sense to me. People fall into positions of authority, but nobody falls into leadership. To be a leader is to choose to do your best for the people you serve. It’s about building trust by being a good person, then helping others get what they want. That’s what I focussed the talk around–the idea that we can all be leaders if we want to. All leaders do is choose to make people’s lives better.

Fast forward through more student leadership roles in college and a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership where I studied leadership theory & practice for two years. I learned a lot, and my education became alive as I worked as a teacher at the same time. But nothing I learned was more important than that Simon Sinek talk. Leadership is a choice, and it’s all about trust. I now understand more about the why of leadership, but the that remains the same. To be a leader is to choose to be better for others.

Leadership is a choice.

Five Leadership Lessons from The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

The heroic events of Avengers Endgame were only possible through the collaboration of dozens of superheroes, but there were about 14 million ways their efforts could’ve fallen short. I’m pretty convinced the Avengers wouldn’t have won if Captain America wasn’t there throughout the entire blip.

Cap’s character flaws are evident throughout the Avengers movies. His stubbornness, inability to compromise, and naive belief that people can always change caused a lot of conflict. Though a battle tested leader, he certainly had his dark side which, which was often fueled by ignorance. However, when it came time to direct the fight at Thanos, only one person said the long anticipated line of the esteemed group of heroes: “Avengers, Assemble.” It was Steve Rodgers, Captain America, the leader of the Avengers.

So after Cap helped saved the world, he went on a solo mission to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful place in history. Then he passed the torch, giving the shield, the symbol of the fight to protect people from evil, to Sam Wilson—The Falcon. It was more than a formality; Steve wanted Sam to be the next Captain America.

As one might suspect, when events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier begin, Sam has fully doubted the appointment. There could only ever be one Captain America, he thought. So he donated the shield to the Smithsonian. Days later, it was given to somebody else, someone who didn’t deserve it and wasn’t chosen by Steve.

The miniseries follows the journey of Sam and Bucky Barnes as they combat a revolutionary group who’s fighting for the rights of people displaced by the blip. We also follow as their alliance, once united by Steve, is suffering because of Sam’s surrender of the shield and Bucky’s traumatic past.

Without giving too much of the show away, I’d like to claim that the struggles of Sam and Bucky throughout these 6 episodes is filled with lessons in leadership—and how to respond when a leadership position is left vacant.

Here are 5 leadership lessons exemplified by the events of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier:

  1. If somebody you follow, admire, and respect sees leadership potential in you, you owe it to yourself and them to take their vision seriously. Their belief in you comes with a responsibility. You can choose to ignore that responsibility, but expect that to come at a cost.
  2. You must believe in yourself and your abilities to lead first. Only then will anybody be convinced enough to follow you.
  3. Leaders must make themselves trustworthy, reliable, and ready for the fight. They do what they can to make sure they’re prepared for the challenges ahead. Leadership is not a passive role; it’s active. You have to continue to train physically, mentally, and intellectually if you want to be a competent leader. If not, there’s nothing for you to place your confidence in.
  4. Leaders make sure everyone’s voice is heard. If people affected by critical decisions are left out of the conversation, this lack of consideration may threaten the ground on which the leader stands on. If you want to lead, you have to lead everyone.
  5. As a leader, you are always standing on the shoulders of giants. No matter who you are, the color of your skin, or the personal history of your people, many have gone before you. Many have suffered, sweat, bled, and died so you can stand here in your leadership position and have the privilege to lead others. Those people, all of them, must be considered. An ignorant leader is a danger to society and themself.

There are always lessons to be learned from the shows, movies, books, and stories we watch or read. But the most important lesson to be learned from this show was in the conversations in the final two episodes about what it means to be black in America. It’s exciting to see Marvel finally attempt to tackle these important conversations. I’m anticipating what other social issues the Marvel team will address in the future.

Cheers, and happy learning.

Franciscan Leadership

Saint Francis was a good leader because he was humble. To learn about the world and what others went through, he gave up all his possessions and lived as a vagrant in his hometown. Nobody understood what he was doing. Honestly, I don’t know if he totally knew. But he had a deep faith that God was working something special in his heart.

The best principals were once teachers and the best chefs started as dishwashers. Good leaders know what it’s like to work. They understand everybody in their organization, from the executives to the line workers folding boxes. They get it because they’ve done it. Francis went out of his way to “do” the way of the poor, and because of that he was humiliated.

Good luck seeking humility without humiliation.

Francis was called by God to “rebuild the Church.” The only way forward for him was to go down the social ladder and into the dirty of humanity. It’s hard to lead from the top down–Francis saw Church leaders fail at that time and again. If he wanted to rebuild the Church so the honest message of Christ could be perpetuated throughout the world, he’d have to become a worker. A craftsman, like Jesus. Someone who can work with their hands, someone who understands how most people live.

Good leaders are humble. Good leaders envision the change they want to make. And good leaders don’t listen to the unwelcome, unwarranted, and unfounded criticism of others. They stand their ground in humble service, loving those they lead, turning their minds and hearts towards the ultimate goal: God. Good leaders bring out the best in people, just as Christ brings out the best in us (because he is the best in us).

There’s a lot of rebuilding still to be done, but it won’t be the work of weary hearts or soft hands. We need more people who understand genuine humility making the decisions about how to move our businesses, our Churches, and our world forward. We more Francises if we want things to get better.

Psychological Safety

A Lesson from my Perspectives on Leadership course:

Teams perform better when everybody feels safe to share ideas, concerns, questions, and mistakes without fear of judgement or embarrassment. Good leaders promote this type of environment by making every task into a learning opportunity, by admitting their own fallacies, and by promoting curiosity. This will allow employees to develop out-of-the-box thoughts and solve interesting problems.

We can all learn something about interpersonal relationships from this model.

Improvise

Tonight in my Perspectives in Leadership class the Improv Team came and lead us through some improv games. We learned how to think differently, how to set people up for success, and how to understand that others probably don’t see situations the way we do. It was an interesting and meaningful tie-in with leadership.

One perspective shared was “life is improv.” This means two things: that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously and that we should allow ourselves to fail. I like this perspective. Being serious is a trap. It sucks the joy out of life. Instead, we should play more and be grateful for our falls, scraped knees, and dirty hands. This world is our playground and we should treat it as such (so long as we clean up after ourselves).

In Matthew 18:3, Jesus says: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And in Luke 17:21, Jesus says: “…nor will they say ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of heaven is in your midst.”

So the kingdom of heaven is in my midst. That means it’s here. And I can’t enter the kingdom unless I become like a child—more open, not so serious, and innocent. This means if I become like a child and play more, I can experience the kingdom of heaven here, now.

Time to stop being so serious.