Monday 9 November 2015

The definition of a Leader

I re-watched the Peter Mansbridge open access interview of Justin Trudeau last Wednesday, November 4.

What was perhaps the most inspirational for me was when they were recording him on a teleconference with grade school students. Part of his response to one student was, "A good teacher is not someone who stands up in the front of the class and gives out all the answers. A good teacher is someone who knows the challenges their students are facing and helps them solve all those challenges and get the answers."

When asked about it afterwards he replied, "Being a teacher is what I am."

What speaks to me most about this is that it would be very easy to replace the word 'teacher' with the word 'leader'. This is more than leadership, this is the heart of servant leadership. Time will tell for sure. At this rate; however, I may be witnessing the first politician I will ever believe in.