THEWORLDISAFISH

The city of Camden will be paying almost 70 high school students $100 each to go to school in the first three weeks of the year...

...To receive the promised $100, each of the 66 targeted students must attend classes as well as conflict-resolution and anger-management workshops until Sept. 30...

Really?

Societies, both present and past, and of all sorts, have continually established the need for basic education in the creation of productive and self-sustaining citizens. Education that not only teaches one how to read, write, and do some simple math, but education that instills a capacity for critical thinking and a constant passion for learning. The day our society – the one espoused by many to be the greatest ever – turned the process of educating our youth into just a conveyor belt that produces mindless cogs to work in our (now deserted) factories was the day that we allowed the "life of the mind" to be plagued by the "rat race" for the dollar.

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Proper awareness comes through education. And proper education comes through exposure to experiences and ideas that one may find unfamiliar, or even uncomfortable.

Challenge your assumptions. Learn something.

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This is what I thought "leadership" meant just a few years ago:

Leadership is not about one person taking a group and stringing them to each other to form a puppet show that they want to see.
                                                                                   Instead, leadership is about growing people. It is about allowing those that look to you for advice to one day fill the position that you reside in and, ultimately, do as well, or hopefully a better job. The leadership of an individual does not stop when their term or contract ends. The true success of a leader should be measured by the years after they leave their organization and the achievements it produces.

[Leadership] is about promoting new directions of an organization and influencing the future leaders to differentiate themselves from their peers, allowing them to build better businesses, students, and ultimately, societies.  

I still generally agree with that understanding, but I think it merits an addition. Or more specifically, a slight tweak. 

Leadership should no longer be attributable to just one person in an organization. Or even a few people. Instead, we need to begin to understand leadership in a collective way - a way that casts aside the traditional command-and-control style that has typified and plagued our thinking on the topic.

It's an idea of distributive leadership. A non-hierarchical, somewhat flattened structure or, as Henrik Bresman and Deborah Ancona of Harvard Business Schools, describe:

a system where leadership exists at all levels of the firm, and anyone who feels as if he or she can make a contribution is able to take a leadership role. This allows organizations to tap the intellectual, interpersonal, rational, intuitive, conceptual, and creative capacities of its people.

Such an idea of leadership is perhaps counterintuitive to traditional leadership gurus and long-time C-Suite executives. But implementing such a style correctly and under the proper conditions can have massive impacts within a team. Just to list a few:

1) Profits/production/efficiency increase
2) Employee satisfaction increases
3) Leadership can be had by those not in formal leadership roles
4) Change is organic - it comes from the bottom
5) Creativity is stimulated

Leadership today is about networks of bodies that extend far beyond the doors to the principal's office, the corporate headquarters, or the halls of Congress. It's about collaborating on projects and defining one's own objectives. It's about reducing time spent in wasteful meetings and creating collegial work environments. It's about creating purpose for everybody within an organization.

Be a leader. A distributive leader. For it, the world will thank you.
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...because if you don't, somebody else will.

Losing your message means few things:
1) You've lost your voice
2) You've fallen behind
3) You're competitors have gotten ahead

Messaging no longer comes from a central body. Sure, companies have huge PR teams, politicians have communication strategists, and school PTA's have a monthly newsletter. But they have largely become reactionary in nature. How many times does the president give a speech that the press hasn't already seen? How many products has Apple introduced that have been a true shock to the market?

Messaging today isn't about the press release - it's about relationships. Relationships that bring familiarity between yourself and your audience. Relationships that, as Seth Godin says, "breed respect." It's easier than ever to start forming a relationship. Be creative, clear, coherent, and honest.

Reach your audience first and reach them often. And start now.

Otherwise, you'll just be a whisper in a sea of noise.

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Here is Webster's definition for the term "professional":

characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2): exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace

To be called a "professional" in America is generally considered a compliment, a proverbial pat on the back. As it probably should be. These are the doctors, lawyers, dentists, journalists, teachers, etc - the people often thought of as the backbone of America. They get this country's work done. They have a defined role and carry it out dutifully, each and every day.

However, the jobs created, and the roles defined, for these professionals are not self-made. They are the work of others, so to speak. Others we like to call visionaries. Not prophets or pure idealists, but those who truly move the world forward. With their minds.

Yet here's the definition for "visionary":

adj. having or marked by foresight and imagination

But wait. It is also defined this way:

noun. one whose ideas or projects are impractical 

Impractical? Impractical thoughts are generally the beginning of ingenious ideas. The Moon Landing. Democracy. The Internet. These are all things that were not launched (excuse the pun) by professionals, but visionaries - the great idea generators of our time.

Now, today, we strive, and likely always have, to become professionals. It's a title that generally means a comfortable lifestyle for one and his/her family. Of course we need professionals - they help the visionaries grow and ultimately achieve success. But let's strive to become less conforming and habitual - less professional - in our daily lives. And more visionary.

Because visions aren't always impractical. They sometimes lead us to the moon.

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