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The Three C's of Service Leadership |
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by:
Elizabeth Usovicz
District 6040
Governor, 2008-2009
eusovicz@kc.rr.com
www.rotary6040.org
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Missouri has taught me to appreciate the sky. In New England where I grew up, it's often hard to see the sky even on a highway. Tightly packed cities and towns or ocean or conifer mountains form the view. It never occurred to me to look up; there was too much to take in at eye level. On Missouri highways, the sky is no shy-violet backdrop. It fills the scenery almost to overflowing and makes no apologies for dominating the canvas.
That was my view on a stretch of Highway 63 on a late summer afternoon. It was midweek and there wasn't much traffic to interrupt the blue and green-gold skyline until I reached the top of a hill. Down in front of me a black speck marked the space where the sky and the road met.
The speck wasn't moving very fast and quickly grew into an Amish carriage powered by a black horse. Through the carriage's back window I could see the top of the driver's straw hat bobbing up and down with the horse's gait.
I admit that I've always been curious about Amish culture and I slowed down only partly out of courtesy for the driver and his horse. The carriage pulled halfway onto the shoulder to let me pass. As I came up beside the carriage I couldn't resist a quick glance at the person under the straw hat.
The driver was not the bearded elder I was expecting. A boy of about ten or eleven with Dutch-boy blond hair held the reins. He wore black pants and black suspenders over a sky-blue shirt. If he had been with an elder I doubt he would have risked it. But as I passed and snuck my glimpse of him, he shot a quick sidelong look at me. We were eye to eye for a surprised second until distance turned us once again into black specks on each other's horizons.
That instant of unexpected human connection brought me back to a simple truth: connection leads to cooperation leads to community, but only when we allow it to. Our clubs become communities in service to others when we seek out ways to cooperate, and cooperation with others grows only when we take the time to foster meaningful connections with them.
Since that afternoon on the highway I've asked myself: Are there service-oriented people I know that I can connect to Rotary? Am I seeking the cooperation and leadership of others on projects, or do I think of those projects as "mine"? Is the world my service community or does my immediate community define my service world? My brief connection with the Amish farm boy was interesting but unfinished, a speck of possibility on the horizon. Years from now, will that describe my record of service as a Rotarian?
Connection, cooperation and community. One leads to another, but only if we allow them to and make a conscious choice. We can go it alone and remain specks of possibility on each other's horizons, interesting but unfinished. Or we can lead with the three C's and fill the world to overflowing with our collective ability to do good. The choice is ours to make.
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