Counseling - Leadership (Upcoming blog)

Right, wrong, and somewhere in between.  How do we know sometimes what is right?  Over the last few days, all of us have been barraged with words and images of what is happening on the other side of the world.  Some of the images have been heart breaking. Others have been uplifting.  Many have been disturbing. Some have simply been sad. 

I'm not gong to fill this page with the images and words that have been moving across the airwaves, the blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.   You know where you can find them if you choose to search. 

Even before June 12th, I had been reading about the Iranian elections.  When violence erupted, I got the first news, like many others through my Twitter stream. The news was frightening.  That first night I stayed up  until the wee hours of the morning re-tweeting information on basic first aid, what embassies were open for the wounded, and other information.   As the days went on, the stories grew more disturbing and the tweets more frequent.  I definitely was not alone in my efforts.  Many others were doing the same. 

At first I rotated through my multiple Twitter accounts, but soon the number of tweets were still too much.  On Monday, I set up a new account (@JKWphx) dedicated to only sending #IranElection, #gr88 or later #Neda oriented messages. 

But whether it comes from your genetic make up or your environment, I owe whatever leadership qualities I have to my Dad.

Great leaders lead by example and here are a few things he's showed me.

Leadership starts with conversations.  If you listen to the other person, and really hear what they are telling you - you can learn something about them and about yourself.  The more you know about each other - the more you can accomplish together. I've listened as he talks with people many times.  And he really talks WITH them.  Never at them. He listens to what they have to say and shares his ideas.

Challenge your thinking and challenge yourself.  Be open to new ideas while staying true to your principles.  No life is always easy.  And I'm sure raising five kids who were six years apart in age was not always a piece of cake.  (I can not imagine a house with FIVE teenagers.  I have all I can handle with two.) But what ever challenges he faced, my Dad kept his cool and did what had to be done. And he still does to this day.

We live in times of change.  In good times and in bad, change is the one true constant.  But in any era and any economy, there are some  human characteristics that, when we hold true to them, form a solid foundation that we can build on. 

Business challenges fill the Twitter streams, the papers and the airwaves today along with the fears these changes bring to the people living through them. 

As I read about and experience the changes of our times, I draw on the lessons my grandparents taught me in times long past.

The first lesson was learned from my Grandpa Carmichael when I was probably about five years old.  We were looking at a picture book and I asked him what a word  meant.  He took me by the hand, walked me down to his home office, and pulled a Webster's dictionary from the shelf.  Opening the book, he said "let's look it up and then we can talk about it."  And so we did.  The word that day was dromedary.  A bit easier to define than complex issues like ethics, integrity, and leadership.  But the lesson still holds.

 Ethics: definitions from Merriam-Webster Online

1. the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation
2. a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values 
3. the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group
4. a guiding philosophy
5. a consciousness of moral importance
6. a set of moral issues or aspects (as rightness)

Integrity: definitions