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Acknowledging What I Don't Know to Climb the Leadership Ladder

 

Canadian soldiers are learning to take advice from the Inuit people of northern Canada.  Climate change has made frozen waters increasingly navigable, causing fear that China and Russia are eyeing the area as a valuable resource.

Non-native leaders are fighting the urge to apply conventional military survival strategies and adopt indigenous practices that come from deep knowledge of the land and weather. 

Onishi points to the concerted effect of leaders to drop traditional top-down, authoritarian leadership strategies.   “Leaders need to show humility and understand it’s more important to acknowledge what you don’t know than what you do know” he cites a Maj. Brynn Bennett.

This morning I reflect on two of my greatest Achilles heels.  Hiding my fear of being found a fraud with overconfidence and leadership by shame.  I can't hide my impatience and arrogance at times, especially when teachers are showing a fear of change or willful ignorance.  I can't tolerate either behavior and seeing it brings out the worst in me.

Fear of change grinds my coffee because it assumes the individual has the time to wait out leaders and innovators who will eventually run out of steam and drop the initiative altogether.  It is a valid strategy, especially for older teachers who have observed a merry go round of superintendents and principals who dragged the organization into their Quixotic quest to feel empowered while conquering their personal vision or just wandering the wastelands, trying to look like they have one.  I have been that leader, and he still rises within me when I feel tired, frustrated, or overwhelmed.  If you want to see Little Scott, just come to me at the last moment and ask me to solve a problem that should have been shared from the start.

Shame is also a major weakness of mine.  I am sure it is connected to personal feelings of shame, and I scoop it out and deliver it to pretty well-meaning people who come to me for help.  Again, it emerges most often when I am feeling overwhelmed with tasks that I have been given little or no notice or when I don't support the premise behind the project.  Little Scott becomes snarky and chides the person needing support with a sneer, intended to discourage the individual from being so short-sighted, but actually discouraging them from EVER seeking my assistance.  It is no wonder those people choose to go elsewhere for assistance, further complicating my life when the solutions they get there actually cause me MORE problems that require an emergency fix.

One of my tasks for the next week will be to print some reminders I can post to keep me focused on supporting teachers and students, maybe helping them to solve their own problems, but always acknowledging what I don't know, not what I know.  In that way, I hope to climb the Leadership Ladder and gain trust from my peers.


Onishi, N.  Caribou meat and moon signs: Inuit lessons for soldiers in the Arctic, New York Times. June 4, 2023. Accessed June 4, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/world/canada/canada-military-arctic-climate.html

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I don't have the corner on this thing called living. Advice from well-meaning people is appreciated. The rest of you can just keep your traps shut.

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