Be the Person You'd Want to Follow
I too am shocked and sickened by Rick Perry’s divisive tone and bigoted words in his Christmas campaign commercial for the Presidency. (As of this writing, YouTube “dislikes” are outnumbering “likes” by a count of 40:1).
Perry reveals a character that resorts to maligning and marginalizing minorities as a show of strength. He is really no different than the racists who denigrate African-Americans, the skinheads who slander Jews, and the bullies who mock Americans with disabilities.… Read more »
… Read more »The single observation I would offer for your consideration is that some things are beyond your control. You can lose your health to illness or accident, you can lose your wealth to all manner of unpredictable sources. What is not easily stolen from you without your cooperation is your principles and your values. They are your most precious possessions and, if carefully selected and nurtured, will well serve you and your fellow man.
Surfrider Foundation in their own words:
Our mission is the protection and enjoyment of oceans, waves and beaches through a powerful activist network.
You can think about that as three concepts:
“Protection and enjoyment”, we don’t want to put a velvet rope around a beach and tell people to keep off. We’re surfers, we’re beach goers, we’re watermen… we enjoy the coasts.… Read more »
Plastic Pollution Coalition is a global collaboration and effort of individuals, businesses and organizations inspired by and working together towards a vision of a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts on people, animals and the environment.
The Coalition was developed and is currently championed by this handful of founders and staff whose dedicated actions on behalf of the common good exemplify Citizen Leadership:
Over the course of this next week and next, I will be posting short commentaries on the essential elements of The Citizen Leader: Self-Awareness, Conviction, Character (Credibility and Personal Integrity), Courage, Contribution, Community, The Common Good and Gratitude.
The Citizen Leader: Be the Person You’d Want to Follow is a guide to help men, women, young adults and teens explore and respond to the questions: Who am I?… Read more »
Chapter 1 of The Citizen Leader asks, “What is your own truth as a citizen and as a leader, today?”
You will find a series of queries to help you mine the answer. I ask: What do you think your strengths are as a citizen? As a leader? What are the areas that you need to work on? Why?… Read more »
It is a fundamental tenet of The Citizen Leader that citizenship challenges us to contribute to the world around us — that we act as citizens when we participate in efforts to better our community and improve life for everyone in it.
Let me propose that the caliber of our actions, or indeed even our willingness to take action at all, is directly proportional to our beliefs and feelings about our community.… Read more »
My heart goes out to the Citizen Leaders on the University of California Davis campus who demonstrated, by their peaceful sit-in, the courage of their convictions, only to be assaulted by the campus police.
These sons and daughters, these American citizens, part of the Occupy Wall Street movement on the campus, became the latest victims of alleged police brutality to be captured on video.… Read more »
I have written The Citizen Leader to be usable by and accessible to everyone. Since most people won’t have an opportunity to participate in an organized, company-sponsored or costly seminar on leadership, I have designed this guide to be your de facto workshop. It provides rigorous, thorough, thoughtful (and thought-provoking) leadership guidance and training, with the goal of helping you to grow personally and professionally.… Read more »
The Ends Justify the Means
While we do not lack for role models who share and demonstrate what it means to consistently live by guiding principles, there is also a fair share of public personalities whose demonstrate the opposite – whose primary guiding principle seems to be the ends justify the means (whatever it takes, or whatever I can get away with).… Read more »