{"id":21295,"date":"2019-02-07T21:15:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T05:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=21295"},"modified":"2019-02-07T21:15:17","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T05:15:17","slug":"warning-you-may-be-inspired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/warning-you-may-be-inspired\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning, you may be INSPIRED!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may sound clich\u00e9, but we are living in fascinating times (and most people throughout history have probably proclaimed this same sentiment).\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to look locally, nationally, and globally to examine the dark side of leadership (or what we perceive as the dark<\/em> side).\u00a0 Our immediate thoughts may take us to the most obvious leadership display in the United States today – President Trump and the legislative bodies of the Senate and House of Representatives (who were, coincidentally, on full display Tuesday evening during the State of the Union address).\u00a0 But I\u2019m not going to bite on such obvious and easy subject(s).\u00a0 Instead, I want to evaluate a less obvious leader (and one who may be off your radar), former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.<\/p>\n

In full disclosure, President Carter is on my radar because I\u2019m teaching a Social Justice and Advocacy class, and in developing curriculum, I was excited to rediscover the Carter Center, President Carter\u2019s foundation.\u00a0 \u201cFounded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter in partnership with Emory University, The Carter Center is committed to advancing human rights and alleviating unnecessary human suffering. The Center wages peace, fights disease, and builds hope worldwide.\u201d[1]<\/a> \u00a0I\u2019ve known of the Carter Center for many years, but it\u2019s been quite some time since I\u2019ve acclimated myself with their human rights initiatives.\u00a0 And can I tell you, they are doing phenomenal things!\u00a0 Just last evening I showed a video to my class in which President Carter, on behalf of the Carter Center, presented at the TEDWomen 2015 conference.\u00a0 His message was specific to the global mistreatment of women \u2013 stating that it\u2019s the number one abuse of human rights on earth.<\/p>\n

President Carter, at 94, still teaches Sunday School every week at his church in Atlanta (fun fact my dad\u2019s wife went to his Sunday School class just a few weeks ago).\u00a0 He still speaks at commencements, conferences, hosts forums, writes books and op eds, and travels by coach when he flies.\u00a0 In fact, President Carter returned to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, after leaving the presidency, and still resides in his original home \u2013 currently valued at $167,000.\u00a0 He has been married to his life partner, Rosalynn, for 72 years.\u00a0 I could go on and on about the integrity, humility, advocacy, and leadership of President Carter (you get the idea) but it isn\u2019t necessary.<\/p>\n

Would you believe, now that you\u2019ve been reminded of this brilliant man with significant mission, that President Carter\u2019s presidency was considered a failure?\u00a0 In fact, a good portion of the public was brutally critical of his leadership.\u00a0 He has even been labeled the worst ex-president. \u201cAuthor\u00a0Steven F. Hayward, who\u00a0has labeled\u00a0Carter the “worst ex-president” certainly thinks so.\u00a0 In\u00a0his book, “The\u00a0Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry,” Hayward runs down the ways in which America continues to reap the legacy of Carter’s missteps, both during his presidential term and after.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

I admit, I was not aware of the critical things being written about President Carter \u2013 the accusations of mingling in foreign affairs, plagiarized material in his books, supporting communists, etc. Those\u00a0who have their own negative impressions of President Carter \u2013 or who buy in to the negative written propaganda – will certainly believe that his leadership falls into the dark side realm. \u201cThe Dark Side of Transformational Leadership<\/em>\u00a0confronts this orthodoxy by illustrating how such approaches can encourage narcissism, megalomania and poor decision making on the part of leaders, at great expense to those organizations they serve.\u201d[3]<\/a> And I\u2019m wondering, is leadership, at its core, just a social construct\u2026?<\/p>\n

In instituting discourse as a method for establishing personal identity, it is relevant to recognize this as a form of social construction. Discourse, as talk and text within organizational contexts, is socially constructed and provides insight into the language used in different contexts. Social constructionism is founded on the premise that language creates reality.[4]<\/strong><\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

Take for example the leadership style of President Trump.\u00a0 I am incredibly frustrated with his leadership style \u2013 hierarchal with little to no input from his advisors.\u00a0 He communicates via Twitter, fires subordinates who disagree with his direction, and uses his \u201cMake America Great\u201d rhetoric to stir up fear towards immigrants and refugees (among many other issues).\u00a0 Yet, his faithful followers LOVE him.\u00a0 They are passionate about his \u201cgreat leadership\u201d, his commitment to this country, and love his \u201cin your face\u201d approach.\u00a0 Where\u2019s the leadership book that speaks to how effective Trump\u2019s tactics have been?\u00a0 There isn\u2019t one because the experts can\u2019t possibly endorse such bad behavior.\u00a0 I, personally, am coming to terms with leadership as a social construct\u2026<\/p>\n

Even though a sect of people view President Carter\u2019s presidency and ex-presidency as a failure, I am holding true to my belief that he was an excellent president and an even better ex-president.\u00a0 In my paradigm of great leadership, the character, integrity and demeanor of the leader is the essential quality.\u00a0 And did I mention that the Carter Center is changing the world, one human rights initiative at a time?\u00a0 Definitely not the typology of\u00a0The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership.<\/em>\u00a0 Check it out for yourself @ https:\/\/www.cartercenter.org\/about\/index.html<\/a>.\u00a0 Warning, you may be INSPIRED!<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vkkh94vHT38#action=share<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/politics\/article\/Jimmy-Carter-s-Legacy-of-Failure-2483048.php<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/record\/2013-10428-000<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/23311886.2017.1328794<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may sound clich\u00e9, but we are living in fascinating times (and most people throughout history have probably proclaimed this same sentiment).\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to look locally, nationally, and globally to examine the dark side of leadership (or what we perceive as the dark side).\u00a0 Our immediate thoughts may take us to the most obvious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1439],"class_list":["post-21295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-tourish","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21296,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21295\/revisions\/21296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}