Compassionate Leadership
At the time of writing this article, I, together with 28 boys and Mr Sterrett, have just returned from two inspirational presentations as part of the Stanford International Youth Programme. One of these presentations was on Compassionate Leadership. As part of this presentation, boys had different coloured stickers placed on their forehead and were then asked to organise themselves into a group without speaking to each other. After each set of groupings the lecturer would say, "No, I want you to organise yourself into a group". The boys would try another set of groupings based on the colours of the stickers only to be asked to do the same thing. After a number of attempts the boys made one large group thinking surely they had done what the presenter was asking, only to be told, "No, I want you to organise everyone into a group". While the boys were close in forming one large group they had not included the presenter. His point was that we have the ability to influence all of the people around us all of the time, either positively or negatively. We have a responsibility to include all of the people around us. If we limit our positive influence to those in our friendship group or any other group that does not include everyone, we are not being strong leaders. Great leadership involves all of us, regardless of position.
Before being able to lead others we need to know who we are. Boys shared personal thoughts and feelings in a safe, accepting and supportive environment before being taught about mindfulness, however, with an important difference. Compassionate leadership requires us to be mindful of other people's thoughts and feeling, not just our own. The boys were encouraged to replace 'I' with 'we'. The workshop was impressive not only in the thought provoking material being presented but equally in the manner in which the boys responded.
As I listened to the presentation on compassionate leadership, I was reminded of the outstanding leadership shown by Yarlalu Thomas (Year 12, Stuart) only a week earlier. Yarlalu's idea to hold a concert that involved indigenous community leaders together with performing groups from a number of schools in an event that celebrated the history and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples was the first of its kind at Scotch College. With Mrs Felicity Byres supporting, encouraging and assisting Yarlalu, the inaugural Yira Yarkiny concert was held before an audience of approximately 400 people in the Dickinson Centre in Week 2 of this term. There are few better examples of compassionate leadership than that shown by Yarlalu. He brought people together, both across schools and cultures, did so without a formal leadership position, exhibited the greatest respect and humility to everyone involved, from Dr Richard Walley OAM through to the younger students compering and performing on stage. I have no doubt that the examples shown by so many of our current Year 12 boys at different times of the year and the responsiveness and maturity of the boys in Year 9 and 10 during the Stanford presentation, that we will witness many more examples of authentic leadership for the benefit of all in the years to come.
Dr Rob McEwan
Head of Senior School
