[#positivity✨] (Part 6) I think #UncleLen’s letter from The Queen tells us a lot about leaders. For one, it tells us that, like the Queen, our school leaders & principals want to hear from and acknowledge good teachers, employees and hardworking students.
The greatest principals I have worked with know well that the little people are the big people, and they listen to them carefully.
I remember once seeing a clip of Prince Harry speaking of his grandmother: he said that she was always rather pleased whenever somebody dared to directly ask her to do something, because most people were too afraid to.
So, if you are at a loss, facing a challenge, or in trouble: be brave and reach out. Leaders are appointed to such positions for this very purpose.
With this in mind, here are a few more learnings from the letter we can glean:
1️⃣ We should know that just because a leader doesn’t reply themselves, it doesn’t mean they haven’t heard. They have a whole team around them, with the ability to dispatch people to help you if they aren’t able to themselves. Understand that there are all sorts of reasons why they can’t openly respond or be seen to do so. If The Queen wrote handwritten gifts to all the people who were worried they might not reach 100 years old, I think she’d be out of embossed paper quite quickly. It is likely she quite enjoyed reading Uncle Len’s letter and had her lady in waiting reply specially to him.
2️⃣ Know that if you are feeling uncomfortable or anxious about asking your leaders for advice or help… it spells trouble. A prerequisite for your wellbeing at work is that you have a leader you trust. You should be working with those you feel safe to talk to, not intimidated by or apprehensive about approaching. Uncle Len and I had never met The Queen, but she had a stable, steady kind of presence about her that made us feel comfortable to take the step of writing to her.
3️⃣ We must also remember that good leaders have the skills, foresight and perspective to safeguard schools and companies from ever coming close to a crisis point. Hearing us can help them. They are there to support us. They are there to read our letters.
Time and time again I have seen that it only takes one leader to come along and swiftly defuse a crisis. It is possible, that once alerted, someone with the authority to do so will be able to resolve your problem with such rapidity, you’ll wonder why you didn’t reach out sooner.
So, you may not need to write a letter to the King of England…
But do pay attention to your moral compass and write to your trusted leaders.
Move in that direction and let the path unfold.
It can be quite magical to see how good leaders will swoop in to help once they see your SOS.
P.S.:
Pic 1 = with two stellar leaders.✊🏽
Pic 2 = the royal correspondence.💌
Pic 3 = Uncle Len’s wedding. Held around the same year as The Queen & Prince Phillip married, in the late 1940s 💐
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