The Realities of Leadership

Message from the HEADMASTER

The realities of LEADERSHIP: doing it theVERITAS way

Clearly, the 21st century has brought with it much intense discussion about education, and at Selwyn House we have spent a great deal of time focusing on 21st-century skills such as creativity, teamwork, problem solving, public speaking, character, and leadership. The reality for us is that we have created a new focus on leadership development, and the results have been truly remarkable.

We often hear that students need three elements in order to prepare them for the challenges they will face as they finish their education careers and head into the realm of professional life. Simply put, it is absolutely imperative that students are enabled, engaged, and empowered.

Of course, with boys, we must pay even closer attention to this fact than we would with girls. We know that boys happen to be rather effective imitators, and therefore modelling is so crucial. This means we also need our faculty and staff to be enabled, engaged, and empowered if we expect our boys to act in the same fashion. It doesn’t take too much of a leap to understand how bureaucracy gets in the way. We need to remove barriers, allow risks, tolerate mistakes and failures, and encourage innovation. Who knows, maybe some of those crazy ideas might work.

There are so many examples of this at Selwyn House but nothing comes close, in my opinion, to the example established at the Canadian Accredited Independent School Student Leadership Conference hosted by Selwyn House this past April. One year ago, it began with four Grade 10 students deciding they should make a bid to host the event. They had a vision, and I am so proud of the fact that bureaucracy did not get in the way. They won the bid, and this group of four dedicated the entire year to ensuring they would produce a conference unseen within the CAIS community.

They had the vision and now they had the passion. We all felt it, we all saw the energy, the ideas. And the result? Without trying to live in a world of superlatives, it was the greatest student-led initiative I have witnessed in my 23 years as a headmaster. These four young leaders made the impossible possible. They proved there isn’t much we cannot accomplish when we put our minds to it. Yes, (and I will never underestimate this) they received support and guidance from many, but they led, and in the end they delivered.

This is exactly what we need more of. We need to create an atmosphere where all our boys are enabled, engaged and empowered. We need them to create, to embrace hard work, to reach for a bar that no one would have thought possible, and then we need to celebrate with them when they succeed. Do I sound proud? More than I could have ever imagined. Sterling, Josh, Reid, and Alex not only made us a stronger school, they created a direction that will pave the way for so many future endeavours. And they developed this vision and resulting plan when they were in Grade 10. Boys really can do anything. It just doesn’t get much better than this. ■