Today is Father’s Day, 2020. Too bad that I cancelled Father’s Day earlier this week. My kids and grandson were planning on a big day with us celebrating, but I cancelled it. What put the double whammy on this decision was that today is also our thirty-fourth wedding anniversary. So not only were the kids disappointed, but so was my wife. I made this tough decision to cancel today because the COVID-19 has had a resurgence in my state in only the past week. I felt it was the right thing to do, in order to help to keep my family safe from the virus.
The world has been dealing with this pandemic for half a year now, and from my vantage point, it had been a somewhat distant threat for me and my family. Once the initial self-quarantining abated, we started getting back to our normal routines and lives. This was done little by little, but it was beginning to feel almost normal. Then this resurgence began happening in Arizona and it started hitting a lot closer to home for us, both personally and at work. I could sense the worry from my coworkers as the news of increased cases started to spread once again. So, I made my decision.
My decision wasn’t done because of my coworkers, but their plight had influenced me. I gathered the facts, listened to my coworkers, spoke with my wife, and came to a personal decision. It wasn’t made flippantly or off the cuff, but careful thought had gone in to it. This brings me to the motivation for writing this article:
A sense of leadership is required to make tough decisions
As leaders, we are faced with making tough decisions on a daily basis. In my book, Leadership: A View From the Middle, I shared an experience about the courage it takes to make tough or unpopular decisions. The experience I shared was that I had grounded an entire squadron of F-16 fighter aircraft, only minutes prior to their scheduled take off times. Now that was a tough decision, knowing what kind of ramifications and work was going to be involved by about a hundred coworkers. Not to mention the officers up the chain, all the way to the wing commander and beyond! But I made my decision and stood by it. This is what we need in today’s society: the leadership required to make tough decisions.
This is true any time but is most important right now with the pandemic, murders, protests, riots, and this ridiculous cancel culture that has materialized from it all. I am not suggesting that this leadership must be displayed from those at the top, rather from those of us in the middle. Those at the top are already doing the right things from what I’ve seen. Military commanders, company CEOs, vice presidents, directors, and senior managers are doing their best to deal with this tough situation. They are making the strides required to get their respective areas of responsibility in order.
But what about those of us in the middle? What are we doing at our level? I’ve said before that leaders exist at every level of every organization, worldwide. In fact, most leaders are right here in the middle, with me. So, what are we doing to deal with this tough situation? Something we leaders in the middle can do is to take charge of our own areas of responsibility, both personally and professionally. We should ensure that those who count on us are able to get the answers they need and have someone to look to in times of trouble.
One of the basic tenets of leadership in situations like this is caring for our people. As leaders, we need to care more. We need to care for those we are charged with leading, whether it be at work or at home. If we truly care about them, then we are more apt to step up and make those tough decisions. Leaders take charge, even at the middle level. In order to do this, I believe we should be open to learning more about leadership. In times of trouble, people look to their leaders, as mentioned above. Why not become one of these leaders for our people, for our families?
Let’s learn more about leadership, shall we? A quick way to learn about leadership is through social media. Instead of focusing on all of the troubles that abound in social media, try focusing on the positive. I like to read a few positive messages each day because doing so helps me to face the day. Many of these messages are delivered by outstanding leaders like the ones listed below (with their Twitter handles):
“Leadership is a people business.” – Jon S. Rennie, @jonsrennnie
“If you want to measure the scope of your leadership, don’t look at an org chart. Look at everyone who is being positively impacted by your influence.” – Scott Cochrane, @WScottCochrane
“Accountability starts with yourself. If you can’t manage what’s in the mirror – how can you manage those outside of your own reflection?” – Patrick Novak, @Patrick_Novak
“The most powerful perspective is the one you have on yourself.” – Dan Rockwell, @Leadershipfreak
“You can’t delegate accountability.” – Gordon Tredgold, @GordonTredgold
“You can’t buy morals, integrity or honor.” – Chief Chuck, @CharlesWhiskey
“Whether in small, or big, ways, if we continue to walk by the problems we see, we give them our blessing to continue.” – CMSAF Kaleth O. Wright, @cmsaf18
The gentlemen I’ve mentioned here each has his own style of leadership, and I for one, am glad to have connected with them on social media. I recommend these folks to anyone who is in search of leadership. They have each made an impact on my life in a big way, and I continue to learn from their examples (as well as many other’s examples).
We need to search out leadership opportunities and education. Buy the books, follow the Twitter handles, learn as much as we can. If we do these things, we will learn about ourselves, too. We will learn that we have become able to gather up the courage to make difficult decisions, like grounding a squadron of jets or canceling Father’s Day.
If we learn these leadership skills and accept the awesome responsibility of being the leader for our coworkers and our families, we just might make a difference. We just might make a difference in their lives, and in a larger sense, make a difference in our communities. We just might even contribute to the overall healing of our country. But leadership is required first, and it starts here with us, the leaders in the middle.
