3.1: Leadership

After reading the chapter on Leadership, I've thought about the benefit of empowering others to step into power. Hide Enomoto's approach to "ask-and-empower" is powerful because it places responsibility on an individual while empowering them to feel in control of their endeavors. People are able to become aware of their endeavors and seek the motivation to complete them. Having people learn who they are as human beings and what they are capable of doing is helpful for others because they can empower others to take responsibility and become motivated individuals without telling them what to do. 

I also especially enjoyed Robin Alfred's article, "Holistic Leadership." The idea that task, process and relationship are all important aspects of a healthy, functioning community. Leadership and membership within a community is vital and everyone is aware of values and goals through communication, while fostering an environment where people can resolve conflicts to achieve the goals set by the community. 

My idea for a leadership role that I can take in my community would be to become a model by starting my own organic garden at home to promote sustainability at home, and eventually advocating it to members of my community. I can do this by becoming aware of my responsibilities and self-motivation to empower others to do so themselves. Eventually, I can promote holistic leadership in my community of gardeners to work towards a common goal (growing our own food) but also encourage those to take shifting leadership roles so that everyone feels that they are in charge of a certain aspect in the community. 

The Boy's and Girl's Club of Hilo would be a resource of mine which would distribute seeds, educate other's about growing and composting while fostering the connectedness of our common goal. Challenges I would face would be convincing others that there actually is time in our busy lives to maintain a sustainable garden and to show them how to do it. With the proper leadership skill and resources available, I know that this leadership role I can take would be successful.