I have never like the word ‘leader’. The word seems both elitist and generic. I remember in elementary school we would elect two class leaders who would get to leave class and go to a secret meeting. I had no clue what a leader was, but leave class? I’m in! The teacher asked students who wanted to be leaders to stand up and she wrote our names on the board. My name was on the board. Then she asked the students to vote for who we wanted to be class leader. As she proceeded through the list I quickly figured out what a leader was. Leaders were popular and that was not me. I stopped running for leadership positions. This idea of a leader being the popular elite continued through high school and I saw it mirrored in our political system. I fully understood leadership as I was taught it that day in elementary school, a game for the popular elite, and a game I was not invited to play.
When I began teaching I saw the same leadership system set up as the High School Student Council. Student’s would be popularly elected, go to secret special meetings, and get to be the voice of the students in the school. As a new teacher I was asked to participate in the secret society of student leaders and I was intrigued. It did not take long before I saw that it was all bull shit. The popular elite were not leading anything. Student leaders picked homecoming themes, set up dances, but really just repeated what had always been done before. These popular elite were not leading, they were just recreating what had been done before and given credit as leaders. I had an intense moment of cognitive dissonance…the world I grew up in was not as it seemed.
A new principal was hired and I had to meet him to see if he knew about the trick the world was playing on us. I went into his office and told him my epiphany. Leadership is a lie! The principal seemed interested and so I plowed forward with my crazy realization that leadership is just a bunch of popularly elected people doing nothing of importance. I babbled on and on about how ridiculous it was and as a principal, as a leader, this lie was unacceptable and he should do something about it! He asked me what I would do. WTF!?!?! I was not prepared for this, he was the leader he was supposed to have the answers… I was trapped between the definition of leader I was taught and the new realization I was having. I froze, I did not know what do. What is a leader? I had no clue. As he sat patiently, I went with what I knew and said ‘We should not vote for leaders, we should teach student’s to be leaders.” I thought that was a pretty slick answer for a young teacher to say to his new principal. His response changed my life in a way I could never have imagined. He said “O.K. build a leadership class.”
I had no clue what I was doing. I did all the teacher things I knew. First task, find a textbook, after all I have no clue what leadership is or how to teach it. There are no textbooks on leadership. I went to the experts Covey, Carnegie, Collins, and any other leadership author I could find (they do not all begin with C). I used my scientific research background and went to university papers and read every article on leadership I could find. After a year of research and reading, the first day of leadership class was about to begin. On day 1, I had nothing. I read about leadership habits, influence, and greatness, but still had no clue what leadership was or how to teach it. Leadership class was about to begin, I had no idea what to teach, and I was terrified.
I had no clue. I had no idea that one conversation with the principal about leadership would change the course of my life. This pursuit of understanding and teaching this idea of ‘leadership’ would take me to places I could not even imagined; to a remote village in Tanzania, to the classrooms of Tunisia, to the farms of Haiti, to stand in front of thousands of different people, and even now, to teaching leadership in an addiction treatment center in Texas. I had no clue that leadership, what I saw as a playground for the popular elite, would become the call to adventure which would change my life.
