Dear Mr.-or-Mrs.-in-Charge,
When I think about it, I actually pity you. You see, I don't think you realize the effect that you have on everyone else. Maybe, in your mind, everything is great. You're the leader in charge, you're in control, and everything is fine.
Except it's not.
Everyone in the world tells us to be leaders when we grow up. Our parents encourage us to be a free-thinker, teachers tell us to lead instead of follow and society preaches about the importance of being independent, strong, and taking charge. And congratulations, you're our leader, you're our boss. You've taken charge of your environment and made sure that everyone around you knows it.
Let me tell you about yourself, boss. Because you clearly don't understand.
When you make decisions for everyone that benefit you more than anyone else, you're telling us that you don't care. When you don't take the time to ask us for our ideas or opinions, you're telling us that we aren't smart enough, or we aren't clever enough, or we aren't important enough. When you listen to our ideas and purposely lie about "thinking about it," you're telling us that you can put on the facade of being a great listener and leader, but that your ideas are ultimately better than our own. When you make the organization about yourself, you're telling us that we're only pawns in your little chess-match of a career.
You probably don't even remember me, because you tend to think of yourself and not anyone else. That was a mistake, clearly. You lead us through highs and lows, but it was never about the cause or the organization. No, it was about you.
But I understand, of course. It's hard to lead people, to be in the spotlight all the time. I imagine that it's even harder when you have forgotten the cause that you were working for, or if you lied to us and never fought for it in the first place.
But, you see, life goes on. Our time with you was but a passing season in our lives. It was a hard, dreary and discouraging season, but a passing season all the same.
In the words of someone who is a leader himself, Cameron Cromer: "Character is determined by the choices we make. It is a moral compass of sorts that captains the wheel of our life. A leader without good character is just as bad as a leader without a cause. It's madness. It's the blind leading the blind, the lost boy leading the lost kids into the lost woods. So if you're the lost boy, and the community and your employees are the lost kids, how can we ever move forward? How can we never end this cycle of madness?"
Quite simply, my over-zealous leader, we end it by being better than the unimportant pawns you made us into.
I hope, truly, that you might one day learn this lesson. I hope that you'll realize what a true leader should be, how they should act, and how they should treat those that dedicate themselves to the cause.
Until then, good luck.
