Teamwork
“Individually, we are a drop. Together, we are an ocean.” -Ryunosuke Satoro
A student of Leadership from a young age, I immersed myself
in reading about and gathering leadership experience. I elected to attend The Air Force Academy, in
part, to further build those skills. Initially,
I was focused on the leader, that individual to whom others looked… what I
quickly came to understand, before I was even 20-years-old, is that leadership
is not at all about the individual, it is about the richness of the bond
between leader and team.
After a good 30+ years studying and practicing leadership, I
have learned that teamwork is the element of leadership I enjoy most and where
my teams and I have experienced the greatest successes.
Many books
and movies would have you believe that a leader’s greatest contributions to a
team are brilliant ideas, exceptional skills, an unquenchable spirit or sheer
force of will… yet what I have found to
be most important in leadership is fostering an environment where others can
thrive and do their best work. The
multiplication effect achieved when a team is cooperating together in pursuit
of a common objective is enormous.
Building team cultures that create, nourish, and celebrate teamwork has
been my life’s passion, and that of others as well.
- Michael Jordan said, "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."
- Almost 100 years earlier, Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”
- Steve Jobs shared, “"Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people."
- And Helen Keller told us, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
So what
keeps leaders from focusing on this element of teamwork, and instead focusing elsewhere?
- "A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself [herself] and his [her] contribution to praise the skills of others." -Norman Shidle
The focus
of a leader, therefore, has to be on others, and their work, and growth, and
progress, not on him/herself and “being in charge.”
Lincoln knew
he didn’t free the slaves, Ford knew he didn’t build cars
transforming our society, Neil Armstrong did not set foot on the moon by his own
achievement. Mother Teresa shared with
us, "None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do
small things, with great love, and together we can do something
wonderful."
I want to
serve on City Council because I believe I can work well together with others
and reach for an incredibly bright future for North Oaks.
What we
have here is exceptional… North Oaks
cannot be compared to another community, and to build something like it today
would be next to impossible. Where else
can you be less than 30 minutes from an international airport, yet live in the
middle of a nature preserve with thousands of centuries-old trees, some as old
as the United States itself? Where else
can you be a part of a societal experiment in governance and cooperative care
for its precious resources? Where can you
find a community filled with diverse people, experts in their assorted fields,
all sharing a passion for nature and the peacefulness and refreshment one discovers
in it?
While North
Oaks’ physical environment is exceptional, so is that governance model. It is like nothing else. As a City, we must work well together with
the North Oaks Homeowners Association and with the North Oaks Company if we are
to preserve and advance the precious legacy that is ours. We are but temporary stewards of both the physical
resources of North Oaks and the governance model which gives us our privacy and
the ability to protect the treasure with which we have been entrusted as a
community. I vow to protect those rights
which ensure our collective governance and to minimize interference from those
not intertwined with the prized resources that surround us.
Only
together as a team can we ensure we pass North Oaks to future generations in a
manner its founders would applaud. I
commit to a focus on teamwork:
1)
Within the City Council membership,
2)
With the City Staff,
3)
With THE ENTIRETY of North Oaks’ citizens,
4)
With the NOHOA Board,
5)
With the North Oaks Company,
6)
With neighboring communities and service
organizations.
These entities share many common objectives, and, working together, we can achieve a bright future for our city. Thank you for your support!
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