Essential Leader

When Leadership Calls

In our last class I raised the issues of fairness and expectations when “leadership is thrust onto a person”, and I found myself back on it in chapter nine’s topic of prudence.  Kolp and Rea makes a great analogy with a quote from John Climacus, “when we draw water from a well, it can happen that we inadvertently also bring up a frog” (p. 178).

Even though the authors were trying to make the frog an analogy for vice, I took that the frog could be a “role”. You see, yes life is full of grays and vices do come with virtues, however there are times where certain roles come as part of the virtue package.  Leadership is not something taken, but given.  When people come to you for advice, mentoring, guidance, and counseling, I see it as an acknowledgement of yourself as a leader.  Perhaps that’s the purpose of servant leadership, stepping up when the occasion calls on you to be a leader.

Now I’m not saying the leadership role is something permanent, because we have already discussed that leadership is hardly ever a lifelong position, and in fact it can be seen as a borrowed or rented position.  No, what I’m saying is that leadership can be exercised through intention individual choices. For example, perhaps in a meeting there is an option that is morally right, but goes against the culture or the politics of certain individuals in the organization.  No one is stepping up to discuss the undiscussable out of fear.  If you speak up, because it’s the right thing to do, you may just by speaking give others the courage to do the same.  One small act of leadership has the potential for positive change.

Intent vs. Purpose

Kolp and Rea speak briefly on intentionality on page 181, but is a far bigger concept.  Last Friday and Saturday, I had the privilege of attending a leadership conference held by Oregon PTA.  What struck me in the last couple workshop I attended was the question of intent.  The topic of the workshop was "Effective Practices for PTA Boards."  The facilitator stressed purpose over and over again (which I agree is important), but I believe there should be an equally strong emphasis with the concept of intent.  Purpose is defined as "something set up as an object or end to be attained."  While intent is "the state of mind with which an act is done."  

For example, one woman was frustrated with some of the teachers at her school who left a pricey technological gift unwrapped in the corner.  "They were expensive and now a waste of money," she lamented.  I asked her what her intent was - "to give the teachers a valuable teaching tool."  She laughed when she realized that her intent had been satisfied, but that she could not force the gift to be used. 

Many of the participants of this conference were concerned with meeting attendance and membership increases.  When asked what their purpose was the answer was often "to make parents better parents" or "to raise lots of money for education."   This is all well and good, but one must also question his/her intent within this process.  While they may go hand in hand, quite often they don't.  "Intentionality is our way of stretching between what is and what will be, or could be." (Kolp & Rea, p. 181)  We must honestly and prudently, with wisdom, look within and ask ourselves of our intent.  Purpose will then follow. 

“Time, season, right time”

As I read Kolp & Rea this week, I could not help but reflect on the element of faith that it takes to be temperate. Faith in the Good. I wonder, then, if lack of attention or awareness is also connected to a lack of faith. Maybe faith itself is about presence – now, in the right time.

I also noted that awareness and attention are cultivated in quiet still moments. And without this, life becomes frenetic and lacks the attention to create choice. There is a line on p. 195 about balance vs. juggling that powerfully demonstrates this idea, “balance is different from multi-tasking, which is a kind of juggling. … For the juggler, there can be no rest; to stop is to lose it. Juggling is constant motion. But nothing changes and no difference happens….”

And so, then looking for the virtues – the faithful way of living behind them, it is curious to not that the meaning of Tempus, the Latin root of temperance, has a meditative pulse: time, season, right time. It harkens to the words of Ecclesiastes – all things come to fruition in the right time and season. And according to Kolp & Rea (2006), one must simply be aware and pay attention to how we are using our time, or spending our lives, so that at the right moment we can shift and let the next thing bloom.

If tempus is the root of temperance, then living out the virtue of temperance has the power to bring peace or harmony through choice and ownership. If I reflect on my life, ask questions that provide me with choices, I am able to take more ownership of my everyday actions, their value and meaning in my life.