Years ago, I was blessed to be in a position to hold seminars with groups of educators designed to discuss and build leadership skills both informally and formally, internally – for the individual and externally for the school. As we discussed leadership skills and qualities, we would talk about new tools being put in our toolboxes as leaders. This year in Teach & Serve, I have decided to talk about many of those tools.
HUMILITY
As a younger educator and administrator (department chair, dean of students, assistant principal), I spent time considering how I would move into a principal position. I looked at opportunities in front of me, specifically at the school I had spent the majority of my career, and I waited, and worked and hoped and, in all honesty, maneuvered to try to be ready. I wanted the role. I wanted to be in charge. I wanted to be the boss.
Circumstances humbled me as things did not turn out the way I had planned for them to.
My God, I am grateful for that.
The result of not getting the job I believed I always wanted forced me to leave my alma mater where I had taught for 20 years, forced me to consider new possibilities, forced me to change.
It forced me to confront the fact that I needed to develop humility.
Perhaps there is something about youth that makes us bold and age that brings us back to the mean. That is certainly possible and that is an arc I can see in my leadership journey. When I did not receive the job I so felt I deserved, the soul search was real, the reflection was powerful and I would like to think my development was authentic.
Leaders who are truly going to be servants have to have humility near the center of their hearts and always at the ready to come out of their toolboxes. There is little room for vanity and braggadocio in this work. Those who get tied up in who gets the credit tend to miss the big picture of the work we do.
Of the many tools in the box, humility is one I reflect on most often.Note: I am well aware of the paradox of writing about trying to be good at humility…