We all have opinions. Some more thought-out than others, some more strongly-held than others. Some grounded in facts, others grounded in tradition or emotion. But at the end of the day, we each have unique opinions, perspectives, and ways of seeing the world.
Differences in opinion lead to conflict. There’s no arena that better displays this truth than politics. There’s probably nothing more polarizing in our culture than politics. Even religious differences are set aside more readily than disparate political ideologies.
Even if you don’t pay attention to world, national, state, or local politics, there’s no escaping political intrigue—it inevitably arises throughout society, businesses, organizations, churches, and even families.
Leadership positions of any sort are particularly susceptible to political maneuvering. So while I prefer not to ‘get into politics’ on my blog, I do have a passion for leadership, and so today I want to share an excellent Tip for Greater Success that I gained from my colleague, Lorna Shaw.
Lorna is beloved and admired by her colleagues and community as a truly inspirational leader who does her job with excellence and goes above and beyond to serve her community and state in volunteer roles.
A few years ago I was interviewing Lorna for my book, Be An Inspirational Leader: Engage, Inspire, Empower. At the end of the interview, Lorna briefly segued into politics and said something that really resonated with me. Talking about her daughter, who was nine at the time, Lorna said:
“It’s always been very, very important to me that she recognizes that people who are running for office are doing it for the right reasons and that everybody’s goal is to make the community, the state, the country—whatever it is—a better place. And that your job as a voter is to figure out whose version of a better place you most agree with, and support that person. It’s not that one person is good or one person is bad… Everybody wants to make it better, and you just have to figure out whose version of ‘better’ you like.”
While of course every person has their flaws, and unfortunately there are those individuals in leadership roles—in and out of politics—who have done ‘bad things,’ I think Lorna’s point is well made.
“It’s important to me because there’s so much rhetoric out there, and I don’t want my daughter to think that ‘Oh, he’s a Democrat he’s bad,’ or ‘Oh, he’s a Republican, he’s bad.’”
So whether it’s government politics, the PTA, church leadership, or an organization’s C-suite, there’s no need to vilify a person—whether a candidate, leader, or anyone—because you disagree with their version of ‘better.’
