I had never heard of the word "acculturation" until now but I can't think of a more accurate term for leadership in our nation. "People who are receptive, skillful, and adaptable to other cultures while staying centered in their own." I can't help but notice how easy it is to say this phrase but how much harder it is for people to actually do it. Although we live in a nation where we are culturally diverse, we are- as humans- creatures of habit. We reject the unfamiliar and it takes time for us to adapt and accept change. As a leader in our nation, we need the ability to accept faster, adapt quickly while remaining true to our own culture, beliefs, and standards. That last part is very key in our society I think because people seem to believe that they have to merely accept everything and everyone when that isn't always the case. There are differences in beliefs and cultures and just because you are the leader doesn't mean you have to change your personal beliefs in order to make everyone else happy. In fact, I think the true sign of a leader is the person who is able to stand on his own beliefs and values while open to ideas that do not alter those beliefs and values.
I liked the principles for leading that the book mentioned:
-Learn from the past
-Have a collective sense of community
-Treat each other as relatives
-Act generously and do not take more than your share
-Practice gratitude, hope, and forgiveness
-Have an indomitable hope for our future
A few of these principles were really substantial to me, the first being "learn from the past". I am a firm believer that we have books and are taught history and told stories about our family and country's past because it is suppose to be our guide for the future. There is nothing new under the sun so what our ancestors experienced is the same thing we will experience just possibly in different wrapping. What is the point of having history documented if we aren't going to learn from it? See what worked well and why, see what failed and why- we have the ability to make life so much easier on ourselves and others but we are normally either too blind or too arrogant to see it that way. If a leader learns from the past- his and others- then that shows wisdom.
"Practice gratitude, hope, and forgiveness". I feel as though these things are majorly lacking in our generation and it is very discouraging. We are an entitled generation and we are usually so busy running to the latest and greatest that we don't take the time to stop and be thankful for what we currently possess. I learned contentment not from this nation or from my generation- I learned it from my parents. They drilled it into me from my youth that everything I had was a blessing and how thankful I should always be for everything I owned. If this nation was more grateful then we wouldn't be in the preposterous debt we are in because we would have been focusing on what we do have and not what we lack. Hope is another characteristic that I feel has been robbed from my generation by our prosperity. We have everything at our fingertips that we have no need to have faith or hope for anything. Therefore the concept of believing for something is pretty foreign to us and we lack the strength that our parents and grandparents had. They had to hope in God for their survival- for the strength to endure slavery and segregation. The strength that they have is because of all they went through. Their hope was what got them through and we need to do our absolute best to covet that same hope for our generation. Finally, forgiveness. The phrase that comes to mind is the Bible verse that talks about forgiving enemies and loving those who persecute you. The ability to forgive isn't natural. It takes a special power from God to genuinely forgive others for the wrong they have done. It takes even more to forgive those who continuously wrong us and have no remorse for it. Unforgiveness breeds bitterness and bitterness is a large weight that people end up carrying around their entire lives that is constantly preventing them of being the people they were meant to be. The Bible says that we are to forgive others the way God forgives us and that when we don't forgive then God puts all of our faults back onto our account. I don't pretend to have this working because the ability to forgive is one of the hardest characteristics for me to acquire right now, but I can't do it on my own anyways. My strength is in the Lord- my hope and my trust. Hope not just for the future, but for myself. The belief that God will change my heart and give me the ability to forgive others the way I've been forgiven. "He who has been forgiven much, loves much". Can you truly be a good leader without love? Gratitude, hope, forgiveness- they all go hand-in-hand and they are characteristics of a good leader because the person who can do all those things has a true love for the people they are leading!
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