I really appreciate your clarity, as usual. I would assert there are many connections with the thoughts here to teachers. I am thinking about public high school teachers specifically.
p.s I am going to create paired posts. One engaging each chapter, and a second reflecting more personally on my own journey into—and ongoing practice of—being undefended from each chapter.
Thanks, Eric. I have, in the past, thought I could 'weather' the storms by overworking, overcaring, and even over-praying. All things about me wanting to 'control' the weather systems, and instead created internal storms within me. Breakdown and burnout until I learned different ways of being, starting with realising it was about my broken internal weather measuring that needed attending to. What about you?
Strong framing of defensiveness as adaptive rather than moral failure. The point about younger leaders opting out because they've witnessed the cost without seeing alternatives really cuts deep, especially paired with the idea that defended leadership eventually requries self-betrayal. I've seen this pattern play out in nonprofit spaces where the defensive posture becomes so normalized nobody even recognizes it as a choice anymore.
I really appreciate your clarity, as usual. I would assert there are many connections with the thoughts here to teachers. I am thinking about public high school teachers specifically.
Thanks Aaron. Any of those you can name here for us to notice with you?
“But what begins as protection slowly becomes imprisonment.” Reading this gives me empathy for our leaders.
That is a good word! Well written. Provoking thoughts.
I would be curious, how have you personally experienced in weathered this?
p.s I am going to create paired posts. One engaging each chapter, and a second reflecting more personally on my own journey into—and ongoing practice of—being undefended from each chapter.
Thanks, Eric. I have, in the past, thought I could 'weather' the storms by overworking, overcaring, and even over-praying. All things about me wanting to 'control' the weather systems, and instead created internal storms within me. Breakdown and burnout until I learned different ways of being, starting with realising it was about my broken internal weather measuring that needed attending to. What about you?
Strong framing of defensiveness as adaptive rather than moral failure. The point about younger leaders opting out because they've witnessed the cost without seeing alternatives really cuts deep, especially paired with the idea that defended leadership eventually requries self-betrayal. I've seen this pattern play out in nonprofit spaces where the defensive posture becomes so normalized nobody even recognizes it as a choice anymore.