Leadership

This year's Anytime Online goals have leadership at their core. Leadership is an appropriate goal for our team, because we are ready.  We already lead in so many ways, from instructor presence, subject-matter expertise to course development.  We have been working hard to move down the track and over the hill to improve our courses and reach our students.  We have learned enough about how, we have set the pace, and we have become the example for the college and the province.  We need to solidify this achievement.  We need our accomplishments to last, not for us, but for our students, for adult upgrading in this college and province, so that we do not get lost: so that as a important service we are not diminished.

So what does it mean to lead? As a supervisor for Anytime Online, I have been ruminating about what it does and doesn't mean.  I say leadership but what does that mean beyond vague associations. 

Tom Wilkinson (left)

I turn to people I admire as leaders for examples. Immediately, several sports figures come to mind.  Yet, I have always had a personal interest in the underdog hero. When I was growing up, Tom Wilkinson was the quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos. He was too short to see over the offensive lineman.  He could not outrun the defensive pass rush.  He could not throw the hail mary; in fact, he was known for jumping while throwing laterally.  Despite this, he took the hits.  He made the play happen.  He lead his team to win the Grey Cup. Warren Moon, the man with all the skills, who replaced him as the new superstar, mentored under Tom, and acknowledge his role in helping him see the field and developing personal strength.  Most vividly, I remember Warren going to the sidelines, and Tom stepping in.  Whereas the other team had Warren's number, Tom was a whole new game.  He stepped in and rallied the team to the comeback.

Mahatma Ghandi

Certainly, beyond the world of sports, I draw inspiration from world leaders. Ghandi was an unconventional leader who shook the world.  He moved an empire and united the diverse peoples of his true homeland.  He did not do it with money or force.  I remember watching the movie and being compelled, seeing him standing in front of the gates of some factory, alongside others, resisting with non-violence, taking abuse from British and Indian police. And he did not return hate.  Instead, he called upon the leaders of the various political and religious sects to not retaliate but to continue resistance.  He went on a hunger strike while imprisoned.  He was a successful lawyer in Britain, and he sacrificed it all for the good of all his peoples.  Where others were set to divide, driven by a caste system, he sought to unite.  He encouraged his people to help themselves, making their own clothing, instead of buying clothes made from the raw materials taken from their own country:  the spinning wheel became the emblem for their flag when they achieved independence, both politically and culturally.  He made his own clothes.  He lived what he preached.  He died for what he believed in.  He was killed by those who were set to keep things divided, but in his death, he connected people beyond what he even did in life.  He connected India to itself and to the world.

Most often though, I turn to the people in my life.  Mrs. Gloria Olchowy-Rozebaum was my favourite high school teacher.  She taught me English Language Arts.  She pushed me to act in high school plays, when I was so shy as to believe playing Willy Loman was unthinkable.  She encouraged me to write two one-act plays, which our club produced under her direction at local and provincial festivals. I even built the sets.  She taught us philosophy class, and showed us great meaning and challenged us to think big thoughts.  She never treated us as kids but young, aspiring adults. She genuinely saw the value in our imaginations and was enthusiastic about it.  I remember her directing a play, "Juvie", and I remember her giving lighting directions to make prison bars appear with the main actor on stage.  And I remember it because she saw things that others did not.  She did not have limits imposed on her thinking.  She could be of great seriousness and laugh heartily, all in an afternoon.  I remembered that she marked all of our papers, with flowing comments, in green pen.  Red was too violent, but green meant growth.

Every March, I remember my grandmother, Anne Howard.  Her birthday was March 2 and my daughter, who bears her name as her middle name, was born on March 3.  She worked tirelessly all of her life right up until she passed away.  And she did so without complaint.  She did so with a love of life and a smile.  She did so with pride in important things like her family.  She knew all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren by name.  She bought them all small birthday and Christmas gifts with what little money she made.  She raised five children.  She worked in the fields.  She made and delivered meals all day long for family, farm hands, neighbours and visitors.   She worked as a nurse and volunteered in the Catholic Women's League.  She went to the hospice to provide comfort and company. She helped others.  She was most pleased when people came to her house to share a meal. She made the best lemon meringue pie and bought us all sweaters.  I am quite certain that she is the only person that thought I was skinny and needed to eat more.  She made us all peel potatoes and pull weeds, not by command, but through a respect well-earned.  I remember her telling me once, when I was quite distressed having not succeeded at my first year of engineering, "The world needs doctors and lawyers, but it also needs waiters and taxi drivers."  To her the most important thing was to be a good person and she was.

So I write another meeting agenda.  I go to another team meeting, but I bring these people, and a number of others with me.  I am not them, and I will not likely ever match their accomplishments.  But that does not matter, as we are called to lead in our own way.  To be a beacon in a fog, leading ships safe to harbour.  To stand at the gates for what we believe in, even if it means sacrifice, and to do so humbly.  To imagine and see the world in a new light, to see beauty where others see ugliness, and paint a new scene. To give our fellow person a hand up because we can and we should.  To offer them some pie.  To be good.