Barring any tragic events, I will graduate with my Master’s degree in Public Administration. I have grown considerably throughout the program as a writer, and as a thinker. From my first course, Foundations of Public Administration (taught by Dr. Terry Anderson); to my final two courses, Managing Government Contracts (taught by Dr. Joel Alvarey) and Leadership in Public Administration (taught by Dr. Tammy Esteves); I have been given a box chock full of some great tools. What I do with these tools is yet to be determined, but I will try my best to not be a world-class hoop jumper.
Today I read an article from the website The American Scholar titled Solitude and Leadership, written by William Deresiewicz and delivered to the 2009 plebe class at the United States Military Academy at West
Point. His speech really struck a chord with me. Deresiewicz discusses touches on the flawed nature of multitasking in its lacking of developing true concentration in the workplace. Furthermore, he contends that are not thinking when they multitask, because thinking requires concentration and idea development. I know that as Americans, we are constantly on the go and thinking about ten things at once. Our minivans and crossover SUV’s have become mom taxis for our children so we can taxi them from one event to the next; all in the spirit of giving them everything we can. Think about the last time you had to multitask at work. Do you remember what the actual tasks were? What the memo was about? Did you give each task 100% of your attention? Did you have the time to stop, concentrate, develop ideas, and then act on those ideas? I find that when I multitask that I seldom get the sum of all of the work completed any faster than if I focused on one thing at a time, and often I seem to not give each task the care and attention it needs.
As the youth of today become the leaders of tomorrow, will they have all of the tools that they need to think and act for themselves? To effectively and independently troubleshoot and problem solve situations on their own? As our kids race to fill up their college portfolios with scores of extracurricular activities, they are not learning to truly think, and it is actually quite sad, when you think about it. They are, however, learning how
to essentially how to push a button and get a treat. When my children were younger, I watched their friends constantly run from one activity to the next. Ballet, soccer, FBLA, 4H, Scouts, football, cross country, fall baseball, etc. I vividly remember a couple of families that would pull their kids out of one sports practice to go to another one. Those families actually had their kids in 3 sports each season, and often did some sort of private music lessons as well. I wonder when these kids get to just be kids. Children that grow up with these types of relatively short attention spans grow up to be adults with relatively short attention spans. When compared to other societies, it seems like we are in such a hurry that we have lost our focus, such as taking time to be a family, go to church, and to rest our bodies and our minds from the physical and mental stress of all of the activities. In the end, it seems like all of this go, go, go, is going to lead to cynical, burnt out adults; higher stress and poorer health; higher divorce rates; substance abuse, domestic abuse, problems with coping, or worse...
As Deresiewicz discusses, the leaders of tomorrow are learning to lead by what they see us do today. We
need to teach them to lead with inner strength that comes from a strong ethical foundation. We need to not only teach our kids to act from their heart, not from MTV, Facebook, the NBA, NFL, MLB, or Twitter. The media of the internet, television, and entertainment is not the moral compass that we should be using. Our morality and ethical foundation needs to come from our families, churches, and the authors and teachers of the past. As parents, we need to put our smartphones, our tablets, and our laptops away, and spend time teach our children what true leadership means. We are the leaders of families and organizations. We should take a moment to think about what our priorities really should be. Are we focused on them? If we are, good! If not, then why?
As this is my last blog entry for this class, and as a graduate student at Troy University, I would like to say thank you. Thank you to the administrators and office staff who guided me through the application process, and answered my questions along the way. Thank you to my fellow students from each one of my classes for their honest and open feedback, for that is the only way I will grow. Thank you to the professors who took their time to provide me with a first-class education, and a box full of tools for me to use in my professional travels. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife and children for their unwavering support throughout this last 18 months. I am so blessed to have you in my life.
Now go do great things!
Today I read an article from the website The American Scholar titled Solitude and Leadership, written by William Deresiewicz and delivered to the 2009 plebe class at the United States Military Academy at West
As the youth of today become the leaders of tomorrow, will they have all of the tools that they need to think and act for themselves? To effectively and independently troubleshoot and problem solve situations on their own? As our kids race to fill up their college portfolios with scores of extracurricular activities, they are not learning to truly think, and it is actually quite sad, when you think about it. They are, however, learning how
As Deresiewicz discusses, the leaders of tomorrow are learning to lead by what they see us do today. We
As this is my last blog entry for this class, and as a graduate student at Troy University, I would like to say thank you. Thank you to the administrators and office staff who guided me through the application process, and answered my questions along the way. Thank you to my fellow students from each one of my classes for their honest and open feedback, for that is the only way I will grow. Thank you to the professors who took their time to provide me with a first-class education, and a box full of tools for me to use in my professional travels. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife and children for their unwavering support throughout this last 18 months. I am so blessed to have you in my life.
Now go do great things!
Great final post. It has been a pleasure having you in my classes, and I wish only the best for you in your future endeavors. Be sure and stay in touch via LinkedIn, Facebook, and good 'ole email!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dr. E. I have appreciated your teaching style so much throughout the program. You are an excellent professor. Please do keep in touch. It would be nice to hear from you. Thank you, Tammy!
ReplyDelete