The 5 Cs of Leadership: Choosing Courage Over Fear

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Courage: the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery. 

The “ESPYS” which is a sports award show hosted by ESPN to highlight significant achievements in sports during the past year. There were several remarkable stories that were highlighted during the award show that were meant noting but few personified the definition of courage, as did the story of Pat Summitt. There is no coincidence that she actually was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Coach Summitt’s story is actually a remarkable one, she looked fear, disappointment, and embarrassment in the face with an exemplary confidence and unwavering faith that they would be defeated.  Pat Summitt has recently retired from coaching but before she made this bold move she made an even bolder one. Pat Summitt was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and despite this condition she continued coaching despite how people would perceive her. She knew that people would think that her condition would not allow her to coach at the level she had been accustomed to and would suffer a great deal of humiliation for putting herself and the team she loved in such a position. Despite what the critics had to say she still went on to lead her team to another SEC championship. Pat Summitt personified courage throughout her career and the award she won was well deserved. My challenge is to get the kids I work with to face adversity on their level with this type of courage. Far too many times I have witnessed talented and gifted kids throw in the towel on situations I had confidence they were able to be successful but that same confidence was lacking in the kids. It takes courage to stand out and take pride in yourself and your education while not bending to the social pressures of being cool over being educated. It takes courage to fight for the things you believe at the risk of being alienated from your peers. I want to be able to empower the kids I work with to not be afraid to try and have the courage to reach for their dreams.

 

For more information on Coach Summitt and her appearance at the ESPYs click here

 

 

 

We Salute You

Reaching Out 2 U supports the Armed Forces of America

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Competence a building block of success: A continuation of the 5C's of Leadership

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Competent: having suitable or sufficient skill, knowledge, experience, etc., for some purpose; properly qualified.

 

Developing competency in any subject matter is easier than one may assume. I don’t think people give themselves enough credit for the amount of information and knowledge they already possess. Many people forsake awesome opportunities because they falsely attribute inadequacy to themselves. You may not be an expert in any particular subject matter but most possess a level of competence that is adequate for getting a job done. You never know, you may end up surprising yourself if you don’t quit before you try. A friend of mine shared these pearls of wisdom at a banquet for a few recent high school graduates a few months ago and I thought it was fitting for this blog topic.

 

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

(a guide for Global Leadership)

By: Robert Fulghum

 

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

 These are the things I learned: 

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

 

 

 

Confidence

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Confidence: full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing

You look good, you feel good. When you feel good, you play good. When you play good, the pay is good – Deion Sanders

Prime time was one of the most confident players I have ever seen on the football field. Some would say he was borderline cocky. Some would say it he was arrogant. I’m not going to go there because I am a Deion fan but the qualities and characteristics he possessed is what made him a Hall of Fame player. I think his example of confidence is one that I believe is transferable to any arena in life. If you don’t believe in your own abilities no one else will.

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? That’s kind of a deep question. I wonder how far would we push the limits of our own imaginations if this were true. I believe we can be our own worst enemy when it comes to this. We allow our previous failures to dictate how we behave in the future which hinders us from being successful in the future. So what you failed at doing something. Perhaps you made a simple mistake in planning and preparing that can easily be fixed with a little tweaking. Each victory in life is one step away but you’ll never get there if you never make a move. I worked with a lot of teens and what seems to hinder most of them from excelling and getting to the next level is a lack of confidence. They could be on the brink of a breakthrough but the cloud of defeat, disappointment and failure looms over their every movement. The fear of failure sometimes is too much to overcome and they end up retreating instead of being confident in their abilities. 

It’s one thing to be confident in another person or thing but to be confident in oneself is an entirely different animal. What I want to improve upon as I continue to work on with the people in my leadership program is instilling self-confidence in them. There is much to be learned from victories but much more can be learned in defeat. In victory you can learn that you are capable of completing tasks and goals but there are times when you may not know exactly how you got there. Sometimes you kind of just fall into a win. In a defeat you are able to identify weaknesses in yourself and strategies you previously implemented and work on improving them so that the next time you can be successful. Bill Belichick coach of the NFL New England Patriots has a saying “victories don’t reveal character but character is revealed in defeat.” How a person handles a defeat tells a lot about a person. It can reveal how much mental toughness and resiliency a person has. I’m challenging myself to be that example of resilience because I don’t want to expect anything them to do something I am not willing to do myself.

Philly kids have Q&A with astronauts

For 250 of Philadelphia's young people, 20 questions wasn't a guessing game but the number of chances to hear firsthand from astronauts on the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Don Pettit and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers spoke via a satellite video to 250 Philadelphia Destination Imagination participants visiting the Philadelphia University campus Tuesday morning. The questions may have sounded mundane to many on Earth, but the answers from space elicited laughs and cheers from the audience.

For the rest of the article click here

 

 

End of the year: The 5 C's of Leadership

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The 5 C’s

Confidence – belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance

Competence – having suitable or sufficient skill, knowledge, experience, etc., for some purpose; properly qualified

Courage – the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery

Character – qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity 

Consistency – steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, etc.

These are some of the basic principles that are infused in the various lessons that I teach in my leadership academy. The program is designed to build confidence in the students’ abilities through reinforcement of the things they are currently learning in their classrooms. I believe that it takes courage and character to face the challenges of today’s urban high school student. There are various cultural and societal pressures that in many ways go against the philosophies and principles of academic institutions today. I am hoping that my involvement with these kids helps assist them as they progress towards their destiny. If at the end of the day these kids are not better off after being a part of this program I will have to investigate why we were not successful in what we were doing and call into question whether or not I did all I could to help these kids be successful.

I am glad to say that this was not the case for me. There were significant improvements in the academic achievements and behavioral expectations of the students I was directly involved with. I must also add there is plenty of room for improvement in the way I engage students and challenge them to do better. I did not meet all the goals I set for myself but that shortcoming makes me strive all the more harder to be better the next time around. I believe in my abilities to motivate and draw out the best in people. This confidence leads me to be optimistic about the next school year. This summer I will be working with the leadership team of KDCA during the summer as they conduct their character development course for kids that are at-risk of allowing their behavior tendencies to impact their academic achievement. I’m hoping that me working alongside some more experienced professionals will help me improve my skills in this area.

 

This Is Just The Beginning

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With things coming to a close this school year my thoughts are directed towards the next phase of this leadership program. I believe that in order for me to take this program to the next level and realize the full potential of this program additional resources must be deployed. The type of resource I am referring to is an individual that has a mind and heart to serve youth in the urban community. These individuals will share the wealth of knowledge they received throughout their academic career as well as life experiences. My goal is to have a team of mentors that can work alongside me with the youth that Reaching Out 2 U serves in the community. The direct impact they will have will be identifiable in the classroom. I have learned from my initial experience working with the kids at KDCA that I was not able to justly serve them all because I was spreading myself too thin. With so many teens competing for my time and attention it was hard to make sure I was being utilized to my full capacity. If I could just focus on a few kids at a time then I can be more involved in their day-to-day activities. When there are twenty kids all asking if you will be able to spend some time with them that day it makes it hard to meet all of those commitments. The wonderful thing is that I have a plan to eliminate these bottlenecks. If this plan works out as I intend is another story. With that being said I fully intend that this plan is going to work.

 

 

So you may be asking yourself now what does all of this mean and if you have been keeping a close eye on how things have been progressing through this blog you may be wondering what does the next step look like. First, any plans I have currently that I look forward to implementing into this program are going to be delayed until at least fall of 2013. The reason for the delay is that my unit will be preparing to deploy this upcoming fall (I am in the PA Army National Guard if you didn’t know). I will be using this time to refine this plan so that when I return the project should be ready to be implemented in the day-to-day activities of this organization. Second, I still want to focus on KDCA (KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy) and the investment I have already made with the students. So, with that being said I do not plan on branching out to multiple schools until I solidify the program at this school first. Finally, It is going to be important for me to continue to build relationships with various organizations, colleges and universities that can help provide me with resources that are necessary in expanding this project. The more I think about this the more excited I get and if you were me you would be excited too.

 

Please remember that I am always soliciting your opinions, advice, suggestions and criticism. If you have any leads or references that I can use that would help expand this program please let me know. All you have to do is visit the contact us link on this blog and shoot me an email or simply comment on this post and I will most definitely get back to you. I appreciate any help you can give.

 

BE BLESSED!!!