“Canine Columnist”: Compassionate Leaders Lead!

[AdSense-A]

By Santino Corleone Berkwitt

As I walked past the TV yesterday on my way to my water bowl, I heard a lot of yelling on the news station that my mommy had on. When I returned from getting a drink, I asked my mommy what all of the ruckus was about.

She explained to me that people were still angry about the Ted Cruz situation. Honestly, I was pretty angry myself, even writing an open letter to Snowflake Cruz. But this news story was a little different. My mommy said that people were angry because Mr. Cruz showed a lack of leadership. My mommy said, “Santino, leaders lead!” I wasn’t quite sure of what she meant by this, so I asked her to explain.

She asked me if I remembered the time where she took a leadership role at work when we were back home. I told her that I did. There was an emergency at work, and a lot of people were working around the clock to get things back on track. My mommy’s role wasn’t where she would physically make things better, she didn’t start equipment or shut equipment down, but as a leader, she was there to support people who did. She was there to encourage, be an extra set of eyes, commend, remind of things that may be overlooked, and make sure that their needs were taken care of so that they could effectively do their job. She said if that meant getting lunch ordered and delivering it to the people who’s boots were on the ground, then that is what she did. She told me that this what it means to be a leader. She had done the work that others were doing in the past, and she knows how it felt to have support, or someone to make a phone call or prepare needed documents. She appreciated someone who was the stitch to hold the fabric together.

I also thought about the time when Bella told me about really bad weather while she was on the streets. She was with a couple of other dogs, but one particular dog, Sparky, always lead the group of them to safety. Bella said that just having Sparky around reassured them when they were scared or worried about what was to come.

Now I understand what being a leader means. It means self-sacrifice. It means compassion. It means putting others ahead of yourself, or sometimes doing things that might be considered “grunt work”, but are necessary for things to function.

I’m not sure if I can be a leader, but one thing that I know. If I’m not fully committed to putting others’ first, or being inconvenienced, then I won’t take a leadership role. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone if I did.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]