Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Leadership: A Lesson from the Geese

Have you ever tried to define leadership?
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There have been times in my life when I thought that I could define leadership pretty well, or I could point out an example of a leader. I was very shocked then when my definition of leadership was turned completely around during this last semester. It all started something like this…
I was working on a timed group project with a group of classmates. When the facilitator instructed us to begin, my group took off and raced about trying to finish our task quickly. It was fantastic that there were a bunch of leaders in my group, but as we continued to go on with our task this turned out to be a bit of a problem. Whenever one leader would try to speak, five other leaders would either be talking at the same time or immediately agreeing or disagreeing with what the first leader said. At the end of our allotted time, my group had failed miserably. We did finish our task, but we might as well have hired preschool students to create the finished product that we came up with.
Upon reflecting on this experience I realized that even though we had a group of tremendous leaders, we failed because no one was willing to follow. It was like the quote, “A leader without true followers, is simply going on a walk.” Instead of following the leader, we had created a skirmish line that couldn’t decide where we were going. Following this reflection my group had the opportunity to redo our project, but it took us twice as long to tear down, start over, and finish our project. Throughout the rest of the semester we worked on being good leaders and good followers, and we were able to improve in this area quite a bit and accomplish even bigger projects than our first one was.
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Due to this experience my definition of leadership totally changed. As a flock of geese flew overhead one day, I realized that my definition of a leader was: being the front goose leading the rest of the flock. My definition changed then to what geese already knew about leadership.
When geese fly overhead they seem to be changing positions all the time. After flying in the front for a while, the lead goose will drop back into formation and another goose will take their place. When a goose is rested up and strong they lead the flock, but when another goose is rested up and ready to lead, it is their turn. When a goose drops back into formation it doesn’t just quit flying. They keep flying and refine their strengths for the next time they get to lead, and while they are doing this in the midst of the flock, there are other geese flying behind them. Even if a goose is in the middle of the flock and following the lead goose, the other geese can follow the middle goose.
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This is my definition of leadership: being willing to lead when your strengths are needed and being willing to follow when someone else has a strength that is needed.
Or simply put my definition of leadership is: Lead like a goose!
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As FFA leaders, how can we play to the strengths of our chapters in order to keep our flock headed in the right direction?
Brian Tracy encourages us to, “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” - How can we help lead our FFA chapters even if we might not necessarily be the lead goose?

What is your definition of leadership?