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Friday's Five Ideas for the Future June 28, 2019 Where Young Leaders Are Teaching Each Other This week we are sharing five leadership perspectives that came out of the new Leadership Seminar for Overseas Principals, a program developed by the Office of Overseas Schools, Department of State. The program brings together young leaders serving overseas schools around the world.
All participants completed a close read of two guiding books, Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin and Leadership on the Line by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky. The team of gathered leaders looked into the leadership lives of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Plenty of grist for discussion and debate. And a means for making connections to leading change and moment-to-moment life in our schools.
Seldom is time and opportunity provided for any of us to dig into our own leadership philosophy and practices. The A/OS seminar created the space for young and promising leaders– through story and debate– to connect the dots with the principles of adaptive leadership and the future of our overseas schools.
Here are 5 leadership ideas twenty young international school leaders debated this week in Washington, D.C.. There are messages for us all. Leadership Idea: Seek all ways to build coalitions of support before taking unilateral action.
"I am a patient man, but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed."* –A. Lincoln
Soon afterward, Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation . Leadership Idea: The leader who takes on an issue risks becoming the issue–those most affected need to be part of the solution. Share and give the work back.
"No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care" –T. Roosevelt Leadership Idea: The ability to tell a good story that teaches lessons and gives power and resonance to a collective vision.
"I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be."* –FDR
FDR's honest and unadorned storytelling style lessened the fears surrounding the banking crisis. Leadership Idea: Present a compelling vision for the future that engages hearts and minds.
"For half a century we called upon unbounded invention and untiring industry to create an order of plenty for all our people. The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life."* –L.B. Johnson One highlight of the leadership learning experience was a tour of the Presidential Portrait rooms at the National Portrait Gallery. Leadership Idea: Engage people with collective ambition and bring focus to what people can achieve together.
"Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes, shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do." –Barack Obama Our leaders spent the afternoon with FDR as well. Borne out of a book discussion on Leadership in Turbulent Times, the seminar group visited the FDR Memorial. The 'second" statue of FDR at the entrance to the memorial. Together from five continents at the invitation of the Office of Overseas Schools– the first class of the Leadership Seminar for Overseas Principals.
*Presidential quotes from Leadership in Turbulent Times The F3 publication will join you for the July holiday and return the first Friday in August. Everyone, be safe out there. MEU Email: mark@aaie.org Please Keep in Touch
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