I have two brothers. One special and one not. Let me rephrase. I have a twin brother and an elder brother, though my twin brother was supposedly born first (well, not before our elder brother, but before me. If he was born before the other one, that’d be quite the paradox. No?). However, the beginning of this thing we call life is a subjective relational construct, just like effectiveness. Society debates life, we debate effectiveness. It makes you think. There parallels are astounding. Back to the story. As you can imagine, I’m quite used to sharing, probably in a similar manner to those of you who have siblings. But remember, I have a twin brother, and you don’t. As I wrote, special.
I’ve shared toys, clothes, rooms (including the original room, the womb), birthdays, food, my surname, classes, my visage (he even looks like me, yes, very scary), and interests for years. It was really a full-time job, this sharing thing. Then I read Chapter 7 of our leading thesis. It says that we should share leadership when we are administrators.
I’m done with sharing. I’ve put in my time. No mas.
In all seriousness, this book has posed a lot of common sense (which is more acceptable since I purchased the text on discount). Self-help books often do. Yes, I suppose it’s possible that some administrators are oblivious to common sense, and some do act in unscrupulous manners, misappropriating funds and thus not sharing. Still, concluding that sharing is a wise management strategy should not come as a surprise. The concept applies throughout all levels of society. Sharing authority within organizations, sharing among organizations (a.k.a. collaboration). “Share the Land” sings the Randy Bachman-less Guess Who. Ascribing to mutual interest rather than adversarial self-preservation. The internet communicates shared information. We learn of the flattening of organizations. Carpooling. Transparency/Accountability/Openness encourages sharing results and information for everyone’s sake. Share some money and donate. These blog posts, sharing thoughts. And me, sharing since 1985. An indubitable, certified sharer.
I like how you made a parallel between sharing everything with your twin brother and sharing leadership. I do not have experience of sharing things with a twin sister but I have experience with sharing leadership. Though the parallel is very well expressed but I still think it is a bit different. Right now you are tired of sharing with your twin brother everything but when you are a leader doing and getting everything by yourself you will be definitely tired of doing everything by yourself! Donors, constituencies, board will always expect from us innovations, more effective work, more resources, bigger impact, more involvement, and more responsibilities you will start to strategize how you will share the work and responsibility and with them also power and leadership .
ReplyDeleteZhanna and I spoke during class today. I told her that I was joking about being "done with sharing," as I tried to introduce some levity in all of this organization/effectiveness talk. I apologize for any confusion.
ReplyDeleteDid we share a laugh?