Ryan,

Thank you for sharing your leadership story. I work in full time ministry primarily with youth and I have a story somewhat similar with a high school student. The way she conducted herself made me conclude certain things, which I later realized were wrong. In her case it was hurt that was causing her to act the way she was. I think being reminded of this story, and thinking about your story highlighted to me that a huge component of leadership is listening (Spears, 2010). We can never fully know what is going on with someone we are leading, or why they are acting the way they are acting until we start listening. Part of what you highlighted to me was that you did not listen just with your ears, but that you listened with your eyes as well. What I mean by that is, as you saw Jon “in his element” (Morrow, 2018) you began to understand why a traditional classroom was not working for him. By observing him thriving you learned about him as a person, which in turn made you consider how you could change the classroom to help him better learn. I think listening with our eyes is something that is so important in leadership. People often communicate through their actions and as leaders I think it is important for us to learn how to notice these things.

The other piece of your story that I really appreciated was that when you realized why a traditional classroom was not working for Jon and instead of trying to make him fit into the system that was in place you began to ask if there was a way to change the system that would better serve him as a student. While changing systems does not happen quickly, I think this is such an important way for us to think as leaders. Spears (2010) said that “servant leaders are called to seek a delicate balance between conceptual thinking and a day-to-day operational approach”. As we look at and evaluate our systems I think it is important to look at both the operational functions they serve as well as how they help us accomplish the larger vision of the organization. As leaders we must “devote a significant amount of time engaged in thought or activities concerning the future” (Malgeri, 2010). The example of this in your story of thinking about how to change the school system to meet the needs of students was so inspired because it came out of a situation that was somewhat ordinary. As Dawn highlighted in her story, leadership often happens in by ordinary people in the midst of the ordinary (dawnES, 2018). I think leaders are people who are capable of seeing the potential in the midst of the ordinary, which you so clearly modeled here.

References 

dawnES. (2018, November 28). My leadership story [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/leadinnovation/2018/11/28/my-leadership-story/

Malgeri, J. (2010). Organizational foresight and stewardship. The Public Manager, 39(4), 39-42.

Morrow, R. (2018, November 25). Leadership story [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/principalmorrow/2018/11/25/leadership-story/

Spears, L. C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25-30. Retrieved from http://www.vizenllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CharacherAndServantLeadership.pdf