This week, coming off the exhilarating high of the 2014 Berkshire Festival of Women Writers, I started teaching a brand-new class at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, “Leadership and Public Speaking for Social and Environmental Justice.”
We spent the first day just working with the concept of Leadership—thinking about great leaders and what qualities they possessed that helped them achieve their goals and bring so many others along with them.
And then we thought about what might hold us back from stepping into our own potential as leaders.
The number one obstacle to becoming a great leader, at least from the perspective of the dozen or so students in the room that day, is FEAR.
They quickly generated a long list of very specific paralyzing fears, and as each fear was voiced, the nodding and comments in the room made it clear that it was widely shared.
I certainly recognized many of my own fears on their list, which I will append at the bottom of this post, along with our list of the qualities necessary for great leadership.
A big part of my motivation for offering this class is simply to help students face and learn to work with their fears and insecurities, rather than doing what I did at their age, which was to allow my fears to push me back onto the sidelines, an observer rather than someone who felt empowered to be out in front leading others.
It’s been a long journey for me to learn that, as Frances Moore Lappé and Jeffrey Perkins put it in their excellent little book You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear, “Fear is pure energy. It’s a signal. It might mean stop. It could mean go.”
Frances Moore Lappe
I remember when I invited Frances Moore Lappé to speak at Simon’s Rock a few years ago, she began her talk acknowledging that being up alone on the stage, in the spotlight, made her nervous. But, she said, she has learned to recognize that fluttery, jittery feeling as a sign that she is doing something important, something that matters—and to let the nerves (what some might call the adrenaline rush) work for her rather than against her.
As someone who for many years was overcome with stage fright every time I had to speak in front of an audience, I knew exactly what she was talking about.
JBH 2014
Photo by Christina Rahr Lane
It wasn’t until I was nearly 50 that the multitudinous fears I had been carrying around with me all those years began to melt away, and I can’t say I know for sure what did it, other than forcing myself, over and over again, to get up there in front of audiences and DO IT ANYWAY, because I knew that a) the work I was being called to do was important, and not just for myself; b) if I didn’t speak about the issues I wanted to focus on in that particular time and place, no one else would; and c) there was absolutely no good rational reason for me to be afraid of speaking to the audiences I was addressing.
Clearly, one necessary ingredient of leadership is a willingness to walk with the fears, risking encounters with whatever devils those fears represent.
We’re out of time: climate change demands extraordinary leadership, now
If I am propelled now into doing all I can to catalyze leadership in my community, whether in the classroom or through the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers, it is because I know that we no longer have the luxury of time to stand silently on the sidelines observing, as I did for a good part of my life.
There is simply too much at stake now, and things are happening too fast.
There are some signs that the American political and intellectual establishment is finally shaking off its lethargy and beginning to at least recognize that yes, Houston, we’ve got a problem.
The most recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report pulled no punches in documenting and describing just how dire our immediate global future looks, thanks to human-induced climate change. And for a change, this “old news” was immediately carried on the front page of The New York Times, which has been ignoring and downplaying the climate change issue for years—and strongly echoed by its editorial page as well.
Yes, it’s true—climate change is real, it’s already happening, and there is no telling where it will lead us. If governments immediately start to act with furious speed and concentration, there is a chance we could backpedal our way into a precarious new normal, keeping our climate about as it is now.
If this kind of leadership is not shown, then all bets are off for the future—and we’re not talking about a hundred years from now, we’re talking about the future we and our children and grandchildren will be living through in the coming decades.
In short, we are living through extraordinary times, times that demand extraordinary leadership. And not just from politicians and heads of state, but from each and every one of us.
As global citizens with a stake in our future, each one of us is now being called to turn off the TV, get up off the couch, step out of the shadows, and SHOW UP to do whatever we can do, to offer our skills and talents to the greater good.
For some that will mean showing up at the 350.org climate change rally in Washington DC this month, demanding that our Congress and President represent the interests of we the people, not just the fossil fuel industry.
Teachers like me can start to offer students the tools and skills they will need to become the 21st century leaders humanity needs—leaders who see the big picture, respond empathetically to the plight not just of humans but of all living beings on the planet, and have the resolve, drive and courage to stand up and lead the way towards implementing the solutions that already exist, and innovating the solutions that have not yet been imagined.
Our media likes to bombard us daily with all the bad news on the planet: wars and random violence, natural disasters, corruption and greed, unemployment and health crises, environmental degradation…the list goes on and on. The cumulative effect of this constant negative litany is a feeling of hopelessness, despair, powerlessness and paralysis—the antithesis of what is needed for energetic, forward-looking, positive leadership.
Simply becoming aware of the extent to which your daily absorption of bad news depresses your spirit is a step on the road to switching the channel, metaphorically speaking, and beginning to focus on what can be done to make things better.
This is not pie-in-the-sky rainbow thinking, this is about doing what is necessary to ensure a livable future. One of the most important qualities of good leaders, my students and I agreed, is positive thinking and a can-do spirit.
If there was ever a time these qualities were needed, it is now—and in each and every one of us.
NOTES FROM Leaderhip & Public Speaking class, Day One
Great leaders are:
Charismatic / magnetic
Trustworthy
Change agents
Have something to say that resonates with others
Have a unique/original/relatable idea
Tenacious
Resilient
Creative
Empathetic/loving/caring
Passionate
Fearlessness/being able to embrace your fears
Engaging
Good organizers of people
Able to motivate & energize people
Good collaborators
Good at building teams; good team captains
Good at delegating
Synergizers
Convincing & persuasive
Unswayed by negative feedback & challenges
Self-confident
Able to overcome adversity
Able to share vulnerabilities
Focused/single-minded
Evangelical
Able to attract other strong people
Able to withstand criticism; thick-skinned
Good models: “be the change you want to see”
Articulate
Able to communicate with different groups of people & in different forms of media
Chameleons–able to get along with different kinds of people
Diligent/hardworking
Initiative-takers
Visionary innovators
Able to be humble and stay strategically under the radar
Good at self-promotion
Have good decision-making skills; decisiveness
Understanding of sacrifice/self-sacrifice
Generous
Assertive; firm but not attacking—“real power doesn’t need to attack”
Clear on what they want; clear goals
Intuitive
Considerate
Have common sense
Have a strong moral compass
Have a sense of justice
Want to be of service to the greater good
Want to build merit
Cautious when necessary/ not impulsive
Thoughtful
Resistant to corruption
What holds us back from becoming leaders?
Fear
Fear of responsibility
Fear of judgment
Fear of failure
Shyness
Fear of being seen/heard
Fear of not being seen/heard
Fear of letting people down
Fear of being replaceable
Fear of fulfilling certain negative stereotypes (“Ban Bossy”)
Fear of being perceived as manly (if you’re a woman)
Fear of not being “man enough” (if you’re a man)
Fear of not being feminine enough
Fear of not being a good role model
Fear of having the minority opinion (saying something unpopular, not being able to
convince people)
Fear of being part of a marginalized group & expecting not to be heard/respected
Fear of leaving someone behind / a voice behind / not hearing other issues (ranking & hierarchy)
Fear of neglecting other issues
Fear of not being taken seriously
Fear of being too passionate
Fear of creating conflict
Fear of wading into controversy
Fear of taking a stand
Fear of changing your opinion/selling out for success
Fear of losing your authenticity
Fear of being politically incorrect
Fear of being perceived incompetent
Fear of not having what it takes
Fear of not being ready / not knowing what your “issue” is
Fear of being seen
Negative Qualities that may hold us back
Closemindedness
Righteousness
Malleability
Empathy—taking things too personally
Numbness/alienation
Staying under the radar
Aggression
Defensiveness
Being gullible, believing what you hear, not being discerning
What Systemic/Structural Circumstances Hold Us Back?
Acting to save others instead of trying to achieve your own goals/authentic mission
Youth
Education
Social upbringing
Poverty
Not having access to audience—tools to connect
Race/class/gender/sexuality/etc—social categories
Location (geographic)
Language
Filial piety—not wanting to go against expectations & will of family & society
Influence of media on self-esteem
Transition Times 
Robert D. Ludden
/ April 5, 2014The trouble is, Jennifer, that the effective leaders, and the ones most listened-to, are the monsters like Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Mitch McConnell, Dick Cheney, Ronald Reagan, and even Barack Obama who have one or two good ideas, lots of money and the charisma to con millions of lazy thinkers.
leavergirl
/ April 6, 2014Lots of food for thought. I am sure the class will have fun!
Here, for one: charisma is a trap. People ought to be suspicious, seeing charisma at work, and resist the hypnosis.
Robert D. Ludden
/ April 6, 2014Indeed, leavergirl. Very perceptive of you.
Anna
/ April 5, 2014Jennifer, I’d say you had a good day in that new class you’re teaching!
Anna
/ April 6, 2014Jennifer, you’ve added an important class to the curriculum at Bard College, especially for female students. I hope you continue to share the progress you and your students are making!
What a Heart Can Hold
/ April 7, 2014Jennifer, this class sounds awe-inspiring. I wish I had been in such a class when I was younger. The lists are powerful because they actually give the students, and the rest of us too, something to work with when we think about ourselves as leaders. I am striving to become a voice that reaches enough people to have an impact because, as you noted, we really don’t have time to wait.
Keep writing these thought-provoking blogs and please share more about this class with us.
Jan