Just going to share a quick story. I'm not a leader, I'm definitely a follower. When I have had to lead, I've done the job well enough, be it at projects for work or otherwise. However, I would rather be a good worker bee than the queen so to speak.
That said, I tend not to be confrontational. I've still been wearing my masks despite the mandates in Texas. I went into an Albertsons, wearing my mask. and I saw two older gentlemen in their 50's. Neither of them where wearing their chin diapers, and they both had an air of strength and power, as in do not approach us about fucking masks. It inspired me.
I immediately took mine off. Nobody said anything.
Today, I went to the same Albertsons, this time without my mask completely. Nobody said anything once again. Then another man looked at me while wearing a mask himself as I walked past him.
When I checked out, I saw him again, this time without the mask.
The point is this: there are a lot of folks like me out there who aren't the leaders, or necessarily the ones who will pull the trigger. That is NOT a bad thing. We all can't be leading the charge. However we WANT to do the right thing. It just takes a spark to push people like me to act. If you know you are an alpha leader type, remember that next time you enter a store, and pull off your mask.
Reminds me of a perfect anecdote. In my mid-20's, I accepted a co-worker/friend's invitation to go on an Outward Bound expedition to Joshua Tree, with maybe 10 other guys and two female guides. We did a planning exercise while buying groceries on the way, and after stuffing it into our backpacks we were given a topographic map and coordinates of the first checkpoint. In the first few paces, my friend (who I'll call Daryl, on accounta that's his name) began to assert himself as an expert in topography. It is important to note that we were architectural interns, so both of us would be expected to have a decent understanding of topography. Well, not more than 100 yards up the road, Big D started up an arroyo which I knew was a dead-end and not anywhere near deep enough in the canyon we were in to be the proper route.
Daryl scurried up the arroyo, followed closely by a few guys who were buying his schtick. I stopped on the trail, not a doubt in my mind that he would be coming back. Other guys who had hung back (we were complete strangers initially) looked at me quizzically, with at least two sort of steeping toward Daryl's path, looking at me,taking a few steps toward me, listening to Daryl pattering on loudly about being way ahead of us, and then starting up behind him. They wasted a good 15 minutes on that dead end. I waited until I saw them retreating to continue up the canyon, even though Daryl had the map. I had given it a good look and spotted the trail that we needed to follow - for as far as I could see it, anyway. The trail got very steep and rugged, but I reached the top of a plateau first. A second guy popped up as I was sitting to wait for the group, followed shortly thereafter by Daryl.
He strutted past me, now that he was back on the trail, and announced that he was going to advance to the lunch checkpoint and start preparing the meal we had planned. I joined in and when we reached a point where we disagreed on direction, I looked at the map a good long while and then handed it back to Daryl. Once again he took a bum steer that I knew was wrong, and once again I hung back to wait for him. Quite of a few of the other guys -- I'd say 7 or 8 -- were buying into his "look at me, I'm a leader" routine, so they followed his errant lead.
When they came back to where I and others had stopped to wait, I could see that the guys who had followed him were quite pissed off, and the guys who had stayed with me were just disgusted with his posing. Knowing full well which way we needed to go, and tha our destination was only a short distance away, I nevertheless hung back just to see what Daryl would do next. Before he could formulate another bad plan, one of the other guys asked to se the map -- and then handed it to me.
I said "let's go -- we're already late," and about 50 yards up onto a rocky clearing we ran into our guides who were coming form the opposite direction to find us.
If ONLY our government was built in this manner these days -- as it was in the early days of the republic - where one's God-given abilities, their natural leadership qualities and their ability to listen, ponder and then take action were the basis for appointment to leadership. The Daryls of this world are destroying us.
OH -- and the story goes on, but now 35 years later Daryl is still a struggling draftsman, but I've built a national practice and have accomplished a great deal,including state, local and national leadership roles with recognition. We both started with the same tool kit way back then . . .
Lest anyone get me wrong, please understand that I'm not pumping myself up here. I could share much but this isn't the place or the conversation for any of that. Just telling an honest story about how true leadership naturally rises to the top -- if we allow it to.
Thanks for letting me tell this tale -- I had long forgotten about it, frens!