DEAR YOGESHREE... child care workers leading from the front, the middle and from behind

DEAR YOGESHREE

In my last letter there was lesson in leadership through the capacity of  Polvisia, who ran the soup kitchen, to empathise with people to a depth where, she would, for a moment, be those people, or that person. Then, to use her experience of the other, to galvanise herself to act in their best interests. Child and youth care workers are leaders in our own unique way, That quality of Polvisia' is  essential for us to practice as we work in the lives of these young persons and their troubled lives The good news is: research has found that empathy can be learned. 

We can look elsewhere for examples of the qualities of leadership too.

 As you know the Comrades Marathon run between Durban and Pietermaritsburg ( 94k) in Kwa- Zulu Natal attracts 10's of thousands of people. Many just set on finishing what is known as the most gruelling marathon in the world.
 Every year I swear I wont get hooked into watching it on TV. But its like a magnet. Perhaps it holds some kind of masochistic fascination. I cry twice every year. Once with the winner and then again as the stragglers are carried over the line as the last seconds to 'cut-off' approach , and with those who don't make it. Tears don't come easily. So clearly there are some deep-seated buttons that are pushed by the images of the winners and the streams of humanity struggling heroically to support each other to the finish.

This year as in every year there were pervasive patterns in the scenes and the comments of those who made their goals and from those who didn't.

There were many who immediately give thanks to their God for his intervention in the most difficult moments in the race. They said that there was divine assistance, lifting them above those moments when they would not have managed in their own strength or by their own effort.

 It is interesting that leaders in the creative field especially say this. In a definitive study of about 20 world leaders in the creative fields of Literature, Art and  Music... that is those who were willing to be interviewed, said that they experience a source of creative energy that comes from outside of themselves and which lifts them to level of output that they are quite incapable of achieving on their own. They look at their own achievements and say" But this is not me ! I could not have done that. I hardly recognise myself in this !!". There was a persistent pattern among many leaders in the creative fields who refused to be interviewed as they said that they did not want to delve too deeply into the source of their inspiration as they were afraid that if they were led to understand it more clearly, they may lose it ...... that it would be taken away from them..!

 There is a pattern among child and youth care workers in Africa, many  experience themselves this way too.  and many many child and youth care workers who experience themselves as leading from behind. Inspired by some greater power than themselves to inspire others to reach the finish line as in the Comrades' dying moments. These are the leaders who carry others over the finishing line with them as they share the struggle of the race. In Africa as elsewhere too,these are heard frequently to say that the energy comes from outside of them  they are the ones who in their self sacrifice are also inspirational. They too give us a picture of a world  that should be..

It seems that leaders from the front, and leaders from the middle and the back are frequently profoundly spiritual, experience themselves as 'used' in a bigger providential plan that has to do with something not always understood and certainly beyond themselves.