My Preparatory Journey Towards Daily Intentional Leadership

Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermo-dynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.    

Several years ago I was invited to take part in the North American Educational Initiatives Foundation's Leadership Program
(NALI). The experience and program itself uniquely inspired me as a singularly invaluable exploration and formation towards leadership, and an occasion I will always remember with gratitude. Since then, I have revisited the course materials numerous times and returned blessed each time.

Our group began the journey by asking, “What is a leader?” Is a leader the Jewish David, courageously leading his people into battle? Is a leader Nelson Mandela, spending 20 years in prison on his “long walk to freedom” not only lifting himself, but also his fellow countrymen? Is a leader the single mother who raised Canada’s Michael Lee Chan, the man who today has risen to speak to the needs of his native Jamaica?

Regardless of your own personal definition of leadership, the principles of Solidarity and Individual Virtue are a prerequisite of quality leaders. The North American Leadership Institute has a unique perspective in this respect. Here at the Institute, leadership was interwoven with the themes of Friendship, Family and Community.

Let me tell you a little bit about my experience. NALI approaches leadership from two directions, an academic component, designed by a well known American Philosopher, and field studies. The academic element starts with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It then walks each student on an intellectual journey into the ideas of our society’s thinkers and leaders. These are men and women engaged in the struggle to achieve an equal and just society. 

The balance of courses in Philosophy, indigenous Mazahua Culture and Language, Legal History of Mexico and Leadership seminars kept these studies practical and, for the most part, relevant. While each professor was excellent, many students believe that our Leadership Seminar professor spoke most deeply to the necessity and viability of personal integrity.

The final five days of this course were dedicated to field studies. Here students studied an entirely different kind of leadership among the rural Mazahua people of Mexico State. Of course, every experience was different. For me, the first day was spent tending to a field with a lady who once had a much larger plot, however, she has recently developed diabetes, a common ailment in Mexico, and was now too old and too sick to work hard any longer. Her field was meager, as was the crop. It was with Iloilo and her grandchildren that I learned to re-attach the splintered handle of a hoe, using scrap wood and a rock. They also taught me that chickens are easier caught by children than adults. I was reminded of the importance of the universal language of soccer and playfulness.

The second day was spent embroidering, horseback riding, and searching for wild mushrooms with a family who remarkably managed to live quite cleverly on one hundred pesos a month. They spoke about the low market value for their wool, milk, eggs and beef because of the bureaucracy in municipal government. This small family had obvious talent. The father was studying agriculture via an Internet university and is highly knowledgeable, particularly in regards to nature. His wife embroidered traditional designs on bags, cloths and clothing.

On the final day of field studies, our team visited a community of silversmiths. It was in this community that the spirit of solidarity and leadership found its purest illustration. Here in the “town of silver” family homes and workshops were combined. My host, an artisan of considerable ability, told our team that they no longer had to search out markets for their intricate earrings, which, incidentally, could take one to three days to complete a single pair, and longer if the design is particularly complex. Merchants knew about this band of artisans, in person, or by fax and phone, international buyers now come to the artisans.

If there was one conclusion to drawn from these studies, it would be the simple, self-evident statement that leadership takes on many forms. The overall challenge of this North American Leadership Course is to develop virtue in the participants and to help us recognize how community makes us stronger. Perhaps human dignity can be nurtured in developing a simple awareness of one another and a willingness to look for ways to encourage eahc other.

Mahatma Ghandi said "Be the change you desire to see in the world", myself, I often paraphrase with the gentle nudging word towards daily virtue and spiritual self transformation 'become'. "Become the change you desire to see in the world."

If you'd like to know more about the NAEIF Program, please visit the website: http://www.naeif.org/