Some two weeks ago, Senator John McCain died. While some saw him as a maverick, someone with a strong independent streak, he was also determined to do what he believed right, even at a high personal cost. He is an American hero – for his five and a half years as a prisoner in a Vietnamese war prison, for his many years of service in Congress, and for the leadership principles he embodied.
I’m sure that it is as hard for you, as it is for me, to realize that summer vacations are over, Labor Day is upon us, and children of all ages are going back to school. My middle three grandchildren are either at college or will soon to be there, a freshman, a sophomore, and a junior.
The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines vulnerable as capable of being physically or emotionally wounded, open to attack and damage.
“All the world’s a stage … And, one man [or woman] in his [or her] time plays many parts.” William Shakespeare (1623)
If, indeed, all the world’s a stage, as Shakespeare asserts, then each person, including ourselves and especially those we see as leaders, are certainly visible both at expected, and unexpected, times by expected, and unexpected others as they are on their particular stage.
mis•take noun an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.
“The only man [or woman] who never makes a mistake is the man [or woman] who never does anything.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
Today, most organizations, including a university’s IT organization, structure their work through a set of teams. Other examples include professional sports teams with their structure, their practice day-after-day of plays they may execute in the game, and a surgical team that performs the same procedure, for example, hip replacement, under tightly controlled conditions, perhaps multiple times, day after day.
Compliments are a good thing, right? Everyone likes to be recognized for a job well done. Especially from someone whose work you admire. They are a special form of positive feedback. However, many of us find accepting a compliment with grace to be a major challenge. Too often, our first instinct is to dismiss the compliment. For example, the recipient:
