Page 6 - MyCottleville Magazine Jan/Feb 2017

Leadership...
The First Responder
Police • Fire • EMS
Skip Stephens, Assistant Chief Cottleville Fire District Contributor
What is it and why is it important? What does it mean to you and your place of em- ployment? What does it mean to you and your family? This column is going to accentu- ate the importance of leadership in all facets of life and will highlight great leaders that live or work right here in the Cottleville area.
Make Your Life Great Again...
Following such an ugly election season, how do we start to heal a nation that is so deeply divided? I don’t know about your’s, but before the election, my social media feed was lled with posts trying to convince the world why one candidate is worthy of a vote and why the other candidate is the worst person on Earth. Social media after the election has been more of the same, exalting one person and denigrating the other. The end result is a nation that is, not only deeply divided, but emotionally invested in this divide in a way that creates animosity, bitterness and hostility.
How do we overcome it?...
Skip Stephens
We have to start with ourselves. We must take a look in the mirror and ask ourselves if we are being true to our values and true to our faith. The feeling of being right, of winning, gets the best of us sometimes. That desire to beat our chest and say, “Ha! I told you I was right. I win!” or “I will eventually prove you wrong!” leads us down a very sad and lonely path. It’s a path lled with judgment and intolerance. Is this behavior consistent with our personal core values or the values of our faith? It is a helpful exercise to actually identify and verbalize our values. You may even want to write them down. Remind yourself of what should be driving your thoughts and actions. Is it more important to you to love and respect one another or to be right and win arguments? When we get off track, it is the remembrance of our values that pulls us back to where, deep down, we know we should be. It is our ego that loves to derail our true self and provide us with an alternative and illusory set of values. Fortunately, a little introspection, the proverbial “look in the mirror”, is all it takes to put our egos back in check and evoke our true values.
For me, love is the truest and most impenetrable value of all. If we remember to love rst, then we will more easily see our adversaries as human beings, worthy of respect and undeserving of judgment. If you can do this, you will lessen your internal tension, your relationships will improve, disagreement will be more tolerable and your life will be great again!
Questions with a Leader...
Our great community is lled with hundreds, if not thousands, of great leaders. We have leaders in business, education, public service, non-pro t and faith-based organizations. Leadership is manifested in many different ways by many different people. As a recurring part of this column, I am going to seek out some of the best leaders in the Cottleville area and ask them 7 simple questions. The questions will be personalized to the leader and crafted to allow for the most poignant and insightful responses in regards to life and leadership.
6 | MyCottleville Magazine