Tag: leadership

Posted in NeverFeartheDream

Never Fear The Dream…

Posted on by simplebender

“Saving” someone isn’t your responsibility or obligation. But if they ask, you owe them your best. Witness or be witnessed—lead by example. Don’t talk about it. Be it. Show it. Live it. And know—you can’t truly lead until you’ve truly lost. 25.10.4

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Posted in NeverFeartheDream, Political

Never Fear The Dream….

Posted on by simplebender

Leaders must have character, not merely be characters. The seducer and seduced share a symbiotic relationship—each supporting and needing the other. We all play both roles when our turn comes. But authentic leadership leaves no room for doubt: lead for the betterment of all, for the greater good, not just for those you’ve won over, seduced, bought, and/or suckered. 25.031

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Posted in Philosophy

Assessing Leadership: The Search for Quality

Posted on by simplebender

How do you assess a leader, or maybe just maybe even yourself? What are the qualities which make any person a good leader or a good person? For each of us the criteria for determination will vary but have similar threads. These are critical times for each of us to evaluate and assess our leaders, want-to-be leaders, and frankly ourselves. A recent Marquette Law School survey showed fifty-seven percent of us have little to no confidence in Congress*. These are our elected representatives and leaders. We should assess them differently.

Think about a few characteristics which can be used to understand if they are making progress in pursuit of being better leaders. Characteristics which we can use to figure out if there is improvement rather than feeling good or feeling satisfied. Decisions on who should be a leader should not be about good feelings, but on tangible qualities.

Ask a few simple questions, these ten might be a good start:

  • Are they criticizing anybody?
  • Are they blaming anybody?
  • Are they accusing anybody?
  • Do they react to criticism and complements the same?
  • When they face obstacles do they find solutions or find fault?
  • When wrong, are they contrite or vengeful?
  • Do they demand loyalty over honesty?
  • Do they say the ‘right things’ or do the right things?
  • Do they look toward the future or dwell on the past?
  • Do they lead through hope or fear?

These are questions we should be asking about those who want to lead. We should be asking ourselves if they are more interested in promoting themselves or our county, state, and country. Are they leaders who bring out the best in all of us, or the worst?

Interestingly, the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus during his life (50-185 AD) routinely asked many of these questions. He asked them to assess whether he and his students were making progress simply in becoming better people. We can still use them to assess the quality of ourselves and our future leaders.

Every election is an opportunity for each of us to look at the candidates, and ourselves, and ask some hard, yet basic, questions. Elections have consequences. There will not ever be a candidate who will satisfy all of us, on every subject. But there can be candidates who have standards of decency which most of us can appreciate and support. There are those who do lead with vision and recognize to be a world leader you must be an active player in world events and not an isolationist. There are those who do not parse and spin the words and facts for their personal gain or quest to retain power. There are those. We need to find them, support them, and dispose of those who do not genuinely satisfy, at least most of, our expectations of a leader. Never fear the dream of a better political and social system. Face the issues and constructively correct deficiencies, one at a time.

*MLSPSC18ToplinesRV.knit (marquette.edu)

This was first published in the Bend Bulletin 3/7/24

Posted in Political

Escape America’s Scaphism—WE CAN

Posted on by simplebender

America is suffering its own self-inflicted Scaphism torture. The body America is restrained and sandwiched between unyielding aspects of our political system. Our head, arms, and legs extended out of our encasement as misinformation is feed to us like milk and honey. We eagerly engorge ourselves on unfiltered and uncorroborated statements and political propaganda vilifying our opponents without ever clearly stating our own direction. As we, the body America are trapped, encased in our vessel the maggots, flies and birds begin to find our filth inviting and our defenselessness exciting. We, the greater populous are trapped and dying because of special self-interests, single issues, and greed.

This is an unusually cruel form of torture, humiliation, and death. The greater body trapped, unable to move as our extremities flail. Slowly succumbing to the attacks from the vermin outside and knowing it is our own fault that we cannot escape. Our enemies celebrate and make wagers on how long we can survive. Our allies look on as our great democratic republic, once the envy of the world, is reduced to a heap of rotting flesh. Able only to scream, curse, and cast blame on everyone else. It’s the extreme right, the progressives, the immigrants, it’s misinformation, it’s the mainstream media; it’s everything’s fault but ours. In factuality, we are the problem and our own cause for our pain and demise.

We listen to the attacks on our national institutions and the steady drumbeat of lies, steals, dishonor, witch-hunts, scapegoats, all of those believing they are being persecuted, and all the victims. Lies and propaganda are espoused to deflect blame and avoid accountability and responsibility. The once moral majority has lost its moral compass. Our elected representatives succumb to the threats of violence and the greed of self-interest for re-election. We have allowed ourselves to be imprisoned in our own horrific Scaphism.

Can we escape our own torture? Yes, we can. We must be willing to work toward the greater good and move forward not backwards. A nation of sons and daughters of immigrants shouldn’t belittle and vilify new immigrants, regardless of skin tone or religious background. Our religious communities should follow their own teachings and be accepting and supportive of those who are different and downtrodden. We should, without hesitation, embrace our unvarnished national history and acknowledge what we did right and what we’ve done wrong. We need to be unabashedly proud and uncomfortably ashamed at the same time.  We should welcome challenging ideas and ideals while respecting our neighbor’s individual preferences and orientations just like you want yours respected. Check and double check everything we see, read, and/or hear on the internet or media.

We don’t have to live in an all or nothing social and political system. If we don’t start listening and understanding all perspectives and compromising; our representative democratic republic we will perish a very public, humiliating, painfully slow, grotesque death and fall into a tyrannical autocracy. Unfortunately, there are a lot among us those who want nothing more. simplebender.com

This article was first published in the Bend Bulletin 1/24/24

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Posted in Philosophy

Leadership Lessons From Parenting

Posted on by simplebender

There are so many lessons you can learn from Parenting. So many can and should be applied to Leadership.

Lesson: Be present, be calm, be patient, and listen to them;

Employees need you to be there for them. They need you to be present. They need you to be calm and patient and they desperately need you to listen to them. New and senior employees look toward you for support and guidance. They need you to be calm in the face of any calamity. To show limitless patience and support. Also, they have ideas and perspectives which need to be heard and considered. Don’t miss an opportunity to learn just because you are the boss.
Lesson: Let them stumble, fall, and fail; help them up and coach, don’t fix;

As painful as it might be, a good leader will let their staff stumble, fall and fail. The key will be to prove to them you will be there to help pick them up and coach them, guide them. Don’t yield to the extreme temptation of simply fix the problem. Show them they have the insight and capability of resolving the issue, even after a fall.
Lesson: Grow with them before you find yourself treating them as inferior;

Employees grow with every task and especially those they stumbled through. A leader must recognize this growth and maturity. Acknowledge this increasing capability with ever more challenging assignments. Holding them to the same level of tasks shows them you haven’t grown in an appreciation of their capabilities. They will continue to grow in spite of you. Or, they will meet your level of expectation and you both will fail; and it is your fault.

Lesson: No matter what, no matter when, no matter where—just support;

Commit yourself to publicly supporting them, no matter what, when, or where. They rely on your public support and your private constructive criticism. Show your public support, they will follow your lead and support you. Criticize publicly and expect the same in return, or worse behind your back.

Lesson: Don’t play favorites;

Every employee is unique and special. Each has amazing talents as well as faults. Don’t play favorites. Find within each how they best can aid the organization and praise the hell out of what they do. Help each with their unique weakness while they exercise their strengths. Everyone has a key role. Yours is to not play favorites as this will undoubtably be divisive and failure is eminent.
Lesson: There is a forest amidst the trees, sometimes you don’t need to sweat the small stuff;

It is so easy for an employee to focus on the minutia. Help them understand there is a bigger picture. The small parts, while important, must be addressed with the larger objective in view. They are solving a critical part of the whole, but they must know what the whole really is. It’s not their fault if their creative solution is counter to the global objective. There are many solutions to all problems. Let them in on the secret and let them devise solutions to support it.
Lesson: Leadership just as Parenting is something you GET to do every day, not HAVE to do

It’s a privilege to be a leader. If you don’t think so, you shouldn’t be one. You GET to help guide and grow people to be better than they were. You GET to learn from a wide diverse group and then impart knowledge to others. Leadership is an opportunity to grow their future which you GET to champion. None of these you HAVE to do; but, if you feel they are mandatory obligations you shouldn’t be a leader.


Remember, YOU are their example; no pressure……