You may have heard the kind-of-a-joke that goes like, “What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?” the answer being, “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” It’s almost funny, but as my mentor, Dava Flowers, suggested in an email, maybe we should think about those two topics because the Youngsters are looking for a better answer. Dava is a Youngster. She’s twenty. A college student. She’s a leader in the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). The email was about Dava and Nicholas Tupper, also a Youngster, and CAP Cadet, had hosted a "Fight Apathy" Meeting “where young people from my school can come together and share leadership stories and humanitarian ideas with other students and the leaders in my community.” Do you see why these Youngsters have become my mentors?
I, way too often, hear Old Schoolers complain about our Youngsters, they may be your followers, who live in an “all about me” culture. All they care about is themselves. Maybe. But if that’s so, where did that culture come from? They didn’t create it. They inherited, or assimilated into, it. I’m convinced that our followers, including our Youngsters, care. I think that, by Nature, they have to care. The challenge is what do they care about? That’s where we Oldsters come in.
How many times have you heard that (always others) “they don’t know what they don’t know?” That’s ignorance. We’re ALL ignorant of something! In my case, many things! I’m okay with that. I try to make up for that by learning as much as I can about as much as I can. Maybe you, Leader, should find out what your followers do, or don’t, know (which, by the way, would make you less ignorant) and help them to know! Interestingly, Dava’s note referred to action as she stated that her goal was to get her peers to “ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.” One of my most favoritest adages is, “To know but not to do is not to know.” I’m not sure who said it, but it’s a profound thought. As a leader, you’re charged with leading. Duh…! Where? YOU don’t know unless you know what your followers know! And that takes getting to know them. Start there! Once you know what they know, or don’t, you can, with them, set a direction for growth. And you know what you’ll accomplish that’s deeper than you anticipated? They’ll know that you care! WHOA! My leader cares! What a GREAT climate to live and work in!
Your followers care. They do! About what? Find out! Then guide them toward assimilating what they care about with what you care about and what you BOTH care about. There’s power in that! When we all care about the same thing, we’re likely to do something about it, as Dava expects from her peers. But until you make the time to get to know them, YOU won’t know what they don’t know.
Notice that I introduced Dava as my mentor. I’ll soon, I hope, write a book titled PowerPact Mentoring, which will be based on a workshop I do. Traditionally, the mentoring processes is an Old Schooler guiding a Youngster toward some end. We live in a new world. Dava and I will soon launch a podcast that we’re calling Creating Leaders of Character. Her main purpose in that project is to help me to know what I don’t know. Help me reduce my ignorance of who our Youngsters are and how they think. I don’t really lead anyone anymore, but as I encourage you to be a leader, I need to know about our followers so that I can give you better advice.
So, (as all Youngsters start every sentence) get to know your followers and show them that you care. Life, and leading, is so simple once you understand the complexities! Know and care! That is all!
Until next time, Be GREAT! You ARE!
¡HEIRPOWER!
bob vásquez!
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