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May 2008 Wherever You Go By Paul D. Houston T
Transitions are those times in our life when we stand on the edge, looking into the chasm of the unknown; we have to decide whether we are going to hang back where it is safe or step off and try to fly. These are the times in our life when we test our mettle and learn more about -ourselves. Leadership is really all about testing ourselves. It is easy to forget that fact because, if you hold a leadership position, others are constantly trying to test you. The stresses and strains of our work life are usually created by others who put us to the test. That tends to make us reactive as we respond to these challenges. That isn’t leadership — it is survival as we try to avoid being the one voted off the island. The real test comes when no one is pushing us to do something or when the pressure is on us to do the easy thing rather than the right thing. Then we find out what we are made of. Can we step off into the unknown? Can we look it in the eye and stare it down? Facing Transitions The reality is transitions are a natural part of living. It starts with birth and ends with death and covers every moment of every day we live. Life is one long transition from someplace to someplace else. Why then is it so hard for us to face -transitions? I think it is, in part, because most of the time we delude ourselves that we have it all worked out, that we think we know what is going on. It has been my experience that just when you think that, life has a way of surprising you. As Bob Dylan reminded us years ago, “ ... something is happening here but you don’t know what it is ... ” I remember the words of the Morgan Freeman character Red in “The Shawshank Redemption.” Red said, “Everyone and everything is on its way to someplace else.” In essence, we are all fellow travelers on the road to someplace else. It is just that we have few clues where. If we don’t think it is all about transitions, look at nature. The seasons are but one way Mother Nature tells us not to get too comfortable with what is because soon it will be time to take out the storm doors and put in the screens. And don’t get too used to warmth because cold is on the way. Yet we often resist the inevitability of change by holding onto what is, instead of making way for what might be. This political season has been one long litany of the wonders of change. We seek change when the status quo isn’t what we want. But it doesn’t matter. The fact is the quo has no status. Change happens. It either happens to us or because of us. Some of you know I have talked about my phobia of bridges. I don’t like them much. Yet I have come to appreciate as an educator and as a leader the fact that I need to have a love affair with bridges — for it is bridges that take you from what you know, from the comfort of the familiar, to places we don’t know and that offer new possibility. Educators are bridge builders and tour conductors. We create the opportunity for those we lead to find new beginnings and new possibilities for themselves. Einstein once said, “Teachers are messengers from the past and an escort to the future.” So are leaders. We remind people of what is known so they can be armed with what they need to face the unknown. And then we have to lead them to a new place of potential. Quieting Ourselves The reality of any life is that change happens. It happens to us. We make it happen for others. But most of the time we are so busy doing, we miss seeing it. Henry David Thoreau observed that most men live lives of quiet desperation. I think more likely that most men and women live lives of noisy obliviousness. The cacophony of our world drowns out our ability to hear what is going on. The kaleidoscope of our living blinds us to seeing what is really there. Many times I have written about the need for us to quiet ourselves to see the important things that lie within. Where we are isn’t too important because there we are. We need to take notice and understand we have permanent residence on the edge of something else. Clinging to the side of the mountain will not make us safer — it will just extend the terror. Stepping off is the only way we can fly. Of course, it also gives us the chance to crash and burn. But that is always life’s dilemma. It’s the lady or the tiger. But standing in front of the doors in a dither will not resolve the issue and will not allow us to move forward. Gandhi suggested we have to be the change we want to see in the world. Standing on the sideline worrying about the danger won’t do it. We have to step off and step out. We have to do it and be it. We have to decide if we want to be the agents of change or to be changed agents. Paul Houston is AASA executive director. E-mail: phouston@aasa.org View Archive Listing of Executive Perspective |
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