“Think with courage; look forward with hope; act with faith and confidence in the future of mankind.” (Watson, 1951). I am sometimes amazed at the strength of some of my community elders, and how positive they are for the future, despite having endured horrific pasts, particularly with indigenous residential schools. I feel driven every day to be successful so that in their lifetime they can witness better times. In my indigenous culture we are reminded that change can take 7 generations. This helps me to put things in perspective when frustration sets in due to how slow something might be progressing. Yet I’m hopeful for a brighter day.
As a leader we are often exposed to the failures and frustrations of an organization. We are trained to deal with continuous improvement and so it would be easy to constantly see the negative in everything. It’s important however to stop and realize the accomplishments of an organization as well. In my community for example I live with, work with and spend personal time with family. There can be a culture of negative gossip which is not abnormal given the environment. What I’ve come to realize however is that the cheerleaders do not speak up that often and so consider it a gift when they do. It may be because they are content or sometimes it’s out of fear that they might be chastised for not being part of the negative gossip. It would be very easy to succumb to the negative talk and be influenced into not doing the right thing as a leader. I realize though, that my indigenous community is still healing from inter-generational trauma. It is important that the leadership not give up hope for a better day for future generations. It is happening however, perhaps not as fast as some would expect. Or sometimes as leaders we are exposed to folks with health issues or other things happening in their life that makes it difficult to think about the future with any glimpse of hope. An amazing thing is happening however in Canada and that is the acknowledgement of the Truth and Reconciliation movement. As a child I could have never dreamed of this happening in my life time. It’s not been perfect and we still have plenty of work to do however it’s given me hope for the future. I do believe it’s a great time to be indigenous and am very hopeful for our future as communities. We are still healing but I do believe some of the atrocities that have happened in the past, and some that still exist today, will one day come to an end. As indigenous people we must embrace the future and set the path for our children. We need to be courageous as the warriors we once were. It’s ok to put some faith in mankind as the world is now learning what our people endured. There are amazing folks out there that want to help us succeed and are willing to give a hand up. Will it be the same and will be we ever be able to go back to our traditional ways? I say no however mankind has always evolved including our own people. I believe it’s a mix of the past teachings and future teachings that helps us to evolve and to be better people. We are now being respected for some of our traditional teachings for example, like caring for the earth. We all as humans have to find our way in this world and it is our time as indigenous people to lead the healing. I know I have a sense a responsibility as one of the first generational leaders to face reconciliation and to act with the utmost courage. How as a leader day today can one best lead an organization with courage?
You end with a great question. To be honest my definition of leading with courage has changed with time and in my context. In some ways I think that no matter where you are or what you are doing leading with courage means showing up committed every day with an attitude of growth. “Things will get better, things will improve. It may take time, but I am here for the long haul and I will do my part and not lose hope if it doesn’t appear that anything is happening.”
However, I agree with you, there needs to be a balance. Though I had never thought of it before reading your blog there is a tendency to only focus on what needs to improve, and not celebrate how far we have come. So courage requires enCOURAGEment as well – reminders that things are already better than they were before. And whatever the context, we have all had a small part to play in that.
I have really enjoyed reading your blog and hope that I will continue to be able to learn from you at some point in the future. Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful posts.