What is leadership?

This is a quote that was introduced to our staff this summer at our 7 habits signature training and at the Texas LIM symposium this week, we saw it again. This time, it really hit home. Many think leadership is about knowing their own self worth and potential and in fact, this is something we believe at College Street. We want our students to know their strengths and talents and be proud of who they are. What this quote reminds us is that this is the result of leadership, not leadership itself. 

I think one of our 4th grade speech students, Kaylee, explained it best when answering the stem, The leader in me is... She said "The leader in me is helping others find the leader in themselves." Wow! This is a student who has only experienced 5 months of TLIM paradigm shift. This is a student who must have personally experienced a teacher's leadership because she is the result. Because of her experiences, she now wants to be a leader and help others find their worth and potential. 

Stories were shared at the Symposium about people who faced some major challenges in their lives and how they overcame them. All it took was an adult's unconditional love, telling them over and over again that they believed in them and would NOT let them give up. These people did not even feel worthy of that kind of love, but over time, they started to see in themselves what the adults communicated to them. This is Covey's quote lived out in real life. There was an elementary school child who talked about his family dealing with and overcoming his mother's battle with breast cancer. He said he got through it by living the 7 habits with his family. There was the story of an ESPN producer who took 2 high school wrestlers under her wing, one who was legally blind and the other who, at 11, had his legs ran over by a train. Both of these boys did not see any worth inside of themselves and did not believe they could be someone special. All it took was one person who consistently showed love and communicated their worth and potential over and over and over again, until they saw it in themselves and reached their dreams. There was Tommy Spaulding who was told by everyone in his life that he would never amount to much and whose football coach told him, "I believe in you", and his life was changed. There was another child who at the age of about 9, had already developed a mantra for life, "Yes, I can." Anytime he has been faced with a challenge, he simply tells himself, "Yes, I can." He learned how to face challenges and believe in himself through the leadership of his teachers at his school communicating his worth and potential to him. 

When people ask, "What exactly is the leader in me?", the easiest way to respond is that we believe that all students can be leaders and we teach students to follow the 7 habits to be leaders in their own and others' lives. But this response doesn't do TLIM justice. TLIM isn 't just teaching the 7 habits, helping students set goals and make a plan to reach them, or assigning student leadership roles. It is so much more. It is a true paradigm shift that starts with the educators in our students' lives. It is a ripple effect. It is going into relationships full of love. It is, as Kaylee would say, "Helping others find the leader in themselves."

Who do you know that has lived out Covey's quote above and communicated someone's worth and potential so much that they have started to see it in themselves? Who changed your life simply by believing in you and telling you the things they saw in you that you never saw yourself? Now is the time to let those people know. Would you please comment below and tell us who you have seen live this out? Otherwise, they may never know...