Be the leader you've been waiting for - Patti Digh's Strong Offer

Be the leader you’ve been waiting for

July 20, 2008 in Uncategorized

Sometimes we find wisdom where we least expect it.

A child’s voice from the back seat.

The side of a cereal box.

Or a flip chart hung in Stall #1 of the women’s bathroom on the basement of the Library at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

I feel better having seen "I feel ready" on that page, an affirmation. Having been around bright, engaged, fantastic young people this week–sadly in danger of being marginalized by old geezers (ahem, like me)–I’ve no doubt they ARE ready. All we have to do is get out of their way.

Perhaps we are ALL the leaders we’ve been waiting for. If we don’t hand young people along, we may never know.

P.S. I’m going right home to hang a flip chart in my bathroom. Yep.

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

3 comments to " Be the leader you’ve been waiting for "


Mike Wagner

July 21, 2008 AT 12:44PM

You never know what you’ll learn in Stall #1!

“I’m going right home to hang a flip chart in my bathroom.”

Question: will you supply markers, or will folks need to bring their own?

Keep creating…leadership worth following,
Mike

Rick

July 21, 2008 AT 7:40PM

Patti, whether we are the leaders we have been waiting for or not, there can be no question but that we are raising the leaders who are going to prove better than what we have been waiting for.

You nailed it in referring to the trend among folks of a certain generation to criticize those now at the very age you spent last week with, nit-picking all the ways they don’t measure up. I have to admit, I have had some of those very criticisms come to mind in dealing with 20-somethings who are interning at my place of employment.

It is important to note that I also have come to my senses and recognized that they get to be who they are, just as I developed on my own path many years ago despite the huge differences of opinion (and matching loud-voiced discussions about same) with my own father.

So, to your point: are we able to clear the decks for the new leaders to assume their roles, or will we be dragged, kicking and screaming and whining and offering free guilt-trips, out of the way?

It has never happened the way we are imagining, hoping, and dreaming to see. Because something has never happened before doesn’t make it impossible, though. It only means it was waiting for us so it was done right the first time.

I’m ready.

e.beck

July 21, 2008 AT 9:49PM

i want a flip chart in my bathroom … is it just a giganto drawing pad? how are you going to hang it?