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Sunday, June 6, 2010

Leadership as a servant?

Leadership is a challenging but rewarding role. I am currently working with the student school leaders at MBS (our Waveriders).
These 13 year old young adults have such wonderful potential and take on the leadership mantle with commendable thought and commitment.
We had a discussion the other day about the qualities of leadership and why it is important we do have leaders in our community.
We all agreed Leaders need courage. They should be thoughtful risk takers and have a strong belief in what they are striving to achieve. Most importantly though they must be prepared to serve the community. This was an interesting thought for them to process as they had the idea that the group, team or community should be at their beck and call.
I guess this is where many leaders do fall by the wayside. They forget that to truly lead you are the servant of your followers first and foremost.
We are sharing the book 'Peter Blake- leader' and it is a driving point in this that Peter Blake was of this ilk.

When we looked at some of our leaders within our national perspective some did not match up to this where as others it was glaringly obvious.
Incidentally we talked about Anne Tolley - she was way out of kilter. Yet John Key and Ritchie McCaw seemed to have nailed it (as the kids said)
I have taken this stance in my own Leadership during the past 5 years to be the servant of my team yet still show the ability to make the tough calls when need be.
It took an upheaval in my life to assist this shift. Before this I had fallen into the false belief because I had position I should be followed and obeyed.
Where did that come from?
I guess it could be easy to do when you have too much power and do not self reflect.
Anyway we are involved in the Red Sock day and are offering our Waverider service to the wider community. These students are learning the value of being a true leader and I am sure will prove their potential in the near future.
In the meantime Waverider 1 is certainly gaining a lot of inner satisfaction in being part of the team. check our the Waverider challenge at the Adventure Forest.

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