Tom Kreutzer
Leadership
In the words of our Shifu with regards to leadership “It is very challenging, especially in this society today”. We all have busy lives, whether it be finishing college, high school, or grade school. Working long hours for a major company, running a family business, traveling for business, caring for your children or parents and helping family members. Somehow through all of this we all still find the time to train and also provide leadership to other members of the school. We all have unique qualities and traits that we can use to help the school move in the right direction. In other areas we must work hard to hone our capabilities. Some may be shy and not very outspoken, while others are very outgoing from day one. If we work together as a family and through leadership all weaknesses can be overcome.
Strong leadership requires all of the six words of the week courtesy, discipline, humility, loyalty, integrity and generosity as discussed in the July newsletter. By working daily to strengthen each of these characteristics we can learn to lead. By doing so those we are leading will make great strides and together we will grow in body, mind and spirit. We must enhance our leadership by self-improvement, looking out for the well-being of others, developing responsibility and utilizing everyone’s capabilities.
Words of the Week
Courtesy is to have good manners as an example it could be said that when you treat another individual that you are with politeness being courteous. Courtesy is a very important virtue and should be strived for. As an example, if you are polite and courteous many times you will be repaid with pleasant thoughts and actions from other people. Even if someone is rude to you does not mean you act in the same way, instead lift yourself up and be courteous in every way.
Discipline could also be descried similar to devotion and can be achieved in various ways. You may have good discipline in eating habits to for weight loss and health or be in class whenever possible instead of making an excuse to not excursive. Making an excuse does not show good discipline. Another way to view discipline is to follow the rules laid out before you. Take a look at the military of any nation in the world and I am sure you will find good discipline.
Humility is to be humble or meek. If you are in a line at the grocery store and there is only 1 register open, if you are the last in line but first to see that a new register opens up what do you do. The humble person will put others ahead of themselves and instead of jumping ahead of them and running to the next register they allow the next person in line to proceed first. If a fighter wins a match and boasts about how amazing their skills are this is not a person of humble character.
Loyalty is to have faithfulness in someone or something. Loyalty is not always something that comes free but is earned over time. For example, a company that provides excellent service time and time again will earn the loyalty of their customers. If you are treated poorly by a company or organization usually you will not do business with them again and in most cases you will also tell friends and family of the bad experiences.
Integrity is to stick to your principles and building the soundness of your moral character. If you have a project to complete and you do everything in your power to make it right this is integrity. When you start to cut corners are you sticking to your core principles? For many years there was an auto maker with the claim that they do “Quality is Job 1”. However, after decades of making disappointing cars they finally now have initial quality satisfaction in 2010 that is higher than imported cars. The company was Ford, and for decades even though they claimed quality is job 1 they lost their integrity by cutting corners. Finally, they have redeemed their integrity.
Generosity is to give a helping hand; it could be as simple as holding the door open for someone as they enter a store. It may be that you donate to a foundation that assists in world hunger or it could be help someone learn a form they are struggling with. Giving your time and energy not for your gain but to assist you fellow neighbor. It is to give freely without the expectation of something in return.
