What Does Being A Real Leader Look Like?

I strongly believe, as educators one of our primary responsibilities  is to inspire our students, so they can become the best they can be. It is our job to be learning leaders that help guide and nurture our students learning. We are not to be just an authority figure who hands out assignments and detentions.

Simon Sinek is an author, ethnographer and leadership expert. In this video he describes the biological mechanisms responsible for trust, and explains what being a real leader actually looks like. Simon explains that leaders, are responsible to choose who is allowed into their group and who is not. He said when people come together, they are defined as a group (or tribe) when they have one common goal to work towards. As educators, I believe our groups are our classrooms, our whole school, and even all the schools in Canada. And I believe the mutually beneficial goal that we work towards is the self actualization of our students and ourselves. Drawing form Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the first step towards self actualization, right after food and shelter, is safety. Simon explains this as well. Leaders are responsible to make every one in the group feel safe in order for them to be effective group members.

As teachers, we are authority figures over our students, and we have the power to decide who is, or who is not allowed in our groups. Simon explains that “real” leaders expand the reaches of our group as far as we can, so that every one can feel safe, and every one can contribute to reaching the groups goal. He explains in a very clear and convincing way the responsibilities real leaders have to the rest of our pack, and in our case as educators, to the rest of our students and our colleagues.

I think there is a lot we can learn from this video, not just as educators but also as human beings. We are apart of this huge group called Earth, and it is our job to help make each other feel safe and secure so that we can all become the best we can be.

Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last from 99U on Vimeo.

Simon Sinek is awesome and can be followed on twitter at @simonsinek, and his blog Re:Focus.