A New Day to Bring Your Leadership, by Gary Davis
As I took the trash out this morning in the dawn mist, I noticed it starting to rain.
My first thought, “Great, it’s raining, well isn’t this the perfect way to start the Trump era.” But then I thought, “Hmm, isn't that interesting how I have an automatic view of a rainy day just like I have an automatic view of a Trump presidency.” First that rainy days are bad, even though without them my grass dies and there is no food to eat. And my first thoughts about a Trump presidency are not that optimistic either. He wasn't my choice.
And yet, the role of a leader, if I want to be a leader, is not to go with whatever my automatic view is, just grousing and complaining about how things “are”, like a critic talking about a movie that he did not like. Rather, the role of a leader is to be the director of what happens, to start to think about how I can direct the conversations I have with others to have something emerge in the conversations. Something to which I am committed. And what I’m committed to is a united America. What I’m committed to is a United States of America, that works together, and sees what’s possible in whatever we have (in this case a president named Trump) versus being upset about how things are. How do I transform my view and actually bring leadership to my conversations? I could look at this election result and say to myself, “This is the best thing that could ever have happened to me, the United States and to the world.” Transformation would then mean doing to intellectual effort to ground such a claim. Where do I start?
Well, we’ve gone through some very difficult times as a nation and as an American I may not think I need to stand for America being great again. I may think it is great now. But I could just grab the part of the message that says "have America be great." I’m interested in that, very interested. So how can I get behind having America be great and be excited about having a President who’s interested in that, and start looking for how I can find common ground, find a place to stand for what he’s up to?
I understand he’s interested in building infrastructure. Great. I think that that’s an amazing goal. I think that with the help of a Republican Congress and a Republican Senate, he probably will be able to move that forward, and we’ll see new bridges and new roads and infrastructure that Americans can be proud to use and that will provide safety to our nation.
He says he’s got some ideas about what to do in the economy. Well, let’s see, let me take a minute to give that some room, be curious about what he sees that others don’t see. Let’s assume best intent and come from a stand that he wants to make a difference. We could do that, right?
Many very well informed and educated people were saying he couldn’t win the election, but then he won the election. So if now some of the same people are saying that his policies are ill-fated and will all lead to ruin, maybe or maybe not? I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen that way, but I do think that saying it’s going to go that way helps it to go that way. Whereas saying, “Let’s see what you’ve got and let’s try it, you’re in charge now, lead us, I’m interested in following”, could bring some amazing results.
I know that in our business, we work with a lot of leaders inside of organizations that have people under them in the organization that disagree with the things they want to do. And those disagreeing people sometimes think that just because they disagree with the things that the leader wants to do, that their “misalignment” is not really impacting the leader's intentions. We would argue that if you are not aligned with the leaders on what they’re doing, even if you disagree, you’re part of the reason that that policy or that idea fails, and that if you align with them and start to row in the same direction with them, something could happen that surprises you.
I think many people were surprised when we got up this morning. I think even some of the people that voted for Trump and really believed in Trump, had to, in some ways, be delighted but surprised that it went the way it went. Well, for those that chose the other candidate, let’s let Donald Trump surprise us again by having our country be great in ways we have never imagined. Let's dialogue with those that did chose him and let's get really curious about why they feel that way, see what we can embrace about them. We should hold him to account, continue to have our voice about what we think this country should be about, but at the same time, spend equal energy looking for ways to get behind the one we chose, whether you chose him or not.
My first thought, “Great, it’s raining, well isn’t this the perfect way to start the Trump era.” But then I thought, “Hmm, isn't that interesting how I have an automatic view of a rainy day just like I have an automatic view of a Trump presidency.” First that rainy days are bad, even though without them my grass dies and there is no food to eat. And my first thoughts about a Trump presidency are not that optimistic either. He wasn't my choice.
And yet, the role of a leader, if I want to be a leader, is not to go with whatever my automatic view is, just grousing and complaining about how things “are”, like a critic talking about a movie that he did not like. Rather, the role of a leader is to be the director of what happens, to start to think about how I can direct the conversations I have with others to have something emerge in the conversations. Something to which I am committed. And what I’m committed to is a united America. What I’m committed to is a United States of America, that works together, and sees what’s possible in whatever we have (in this case a president named Trump) versus being upset about how things are. How do I transform my view and actually bring leadership to my conversations? I could look at this election result and say to myself, “This is the best thing that could ever have happened to me, the United States and to the world.” Transformation would then mean doing to intellectual effort to ground such a claim. Where do I start?
Well, we’ve gone through some very difficult times as a nation and as an American I may not think I need to stand for America being great again. I may think it is great now. But I could just grab the part of the message that says "have America be great." I’m interested in that, very interested. So how can I get behind having America be great and be excited about having a President who’s interested in that, and start looking for how I can find common ground, find a place to stand for what he’s up to?
I understand he’s interested in building infrastructure. Great. I think that that’s an amazing goal. I think that with the help of a Republican Congress and a Republican Senate, he probably will be able to move that forward, and we’ll see new bridges and new roads and infrastructure that Americans can be proud to use and that will provide safety to our nation.
He says he’s got some ideas about what to do in the economy. Well, let’s see, let me take a minute to give that some room, be curious about what he sees that others don’t see. Let’s assume best intent and come from a stand that he wants to make a difference. We could do that, right?
Many very well informed and educated people were saying he couldn’t win the election, but then he won the election. So if now some of the same people are saying that his policies are ill-fated and will all lead to ruin, maybe or maybe not? I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen that way, but I do think that saying it’s going to go that way helps it to go that way. Whereas saying, “Let’s see what you’ve got and let’s try it, you’re in charge now, lead us, I’m interested in following”, could bring some amazing results.
I know that in our business, we work with a lot of leaders inside of organizations that have people under them in the organization that disagree with the things they want to do. And those disagreeing people sometimes think that just because they disagree with the things that the leader wants to do, that their “misalignment” is not really impacting the leader's intentions. We would argue that if you are not aligned with the leaders on what they’re doing, even if you disagree, you’re part of the reason that that policy or that idea fails, and that if you align with them and start to row in the same direction with them, something could happen that surprises you.
I think many people were surprised when we got up this morning. I think even some of the people that voted for Trump and really believed in Trump, had to, in some ways, be delighted but surprised that it went the way it went. Well, for those that chose the other candidate, let’s let Donald Trump surprise us again by having our country be great in ways we have never imagined. Let's dialogue with those that did chose him and let's get really curious about why they feel that way, see what we can embrace about them. We should hold him to account, continue to have our voice about what we think this country should be about, but at the same time, spend equal energy looking for ways to get behind the one we chose, whether you chose him or not.
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