fandomhigh | Leadership, Thursday, Period 1, Class 10 (11/13/08)

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Leadership, Thursday, Period 1, Class 10 (11/13/08)

"As leaders you will not always be popular," Nathan said as he passed around that week's handout. "Let's face it, if absolutely everyone agreed on what was the right thing to do you'd be out of a job. I don't care if you're running on a free chocolate for everyone platform. Someone out there, somewhere, won't like it.

"We'll get into making unpopular decisions in the next couple of classes. For today I want to focus on this: you are not a leader to be liked. You are not a leader to make friends. You are a leader because you can do what it takes to bring about what's best for the whole - be that your company, your squadron, your country, or anything else.

"If you want unconditional love get a dog. Though frankly those might not always agree with you either." Nathan smiled briefly, remembering something. He shook it off and moved on. "When you make your decision you have to stick to it, even if people don't like you. Now part of this is your own leadership skills. You have to believe that you've made your decision for the best possible reasons. Everything we've worked on up to this point has helped give you the foundation for that.

"This is also not about ignoring good advice. Again: you need to understand before you make these decisions who gives you good information and insight. And this isn't about what if you're making a bad decision - we'll get into the fun of that next week. No, what this is about is those moments where you know what needs to be done and people hate you for it. There's going to be tension all around you. Your popularity has dipped so far in the polls it's hitting negative numbers. Your own mother is giving you the evil eye and muttering about writing you out of her will. You have to find it in yourself to ignore all of that and stuck to your guns. Remind yourself that you're not in it to be liked, you're in it to do what you think is right.

"For today's class you're going to practice that. Pair up. Take turns with one of you as the leader and the other as the one who doesn't like the leader. Leaders, you've decided to abolish a law that says guys named Nathan aren't allowed to own property. Now I like you a lot, but your partner hates this idea. Dissenters - your job is to try to put pressure on the leader to change his or her mind. This law's been on the books for thousands of years, if the law is changed there'll be rioting in the streets, the entire economic system will collapse - whatever. Have fun. Play around with it. Leaders, stick to your guns. Remind yourself that it doesn't matter if this person agrees with you or not. See how long you can hang in there before you switch roles.

"Remember to play nice and don't make anything personal," Nathan added. "Though once you have the job you'll find that the press and everyone else might not be so kind. But we're not so life or death here.

"As always I'm here if you have questions."

[ooc: OCD is up!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Sure!" Turtle responded brightly. "How's it going, Teddy?"

"Good." He grinned a bit nervously. "I don't think I ever got to thank you for helping with the haunted house."

"Pssh," Turtle waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it! I was glad to help! It's too bad the sorority didn't kick back off like the frat did, but consider my helping as a contribution for the sisters that couldn't be there."

"Well, there is the Girls With Guns club," Teddy pointed out.

"Which isn't all girls," Turtle pointed out with a faint smile. "I was there representing for Self-Defense club, too. One could even argue that I contributed purely on their behalf. Which, of course, I didn't, but you see what I'm saying."

"But the name--?"

"...is more alliterative than People with Guns?" Turtle offered as a way to finish. "It's a purely marketable name and nothing more, really. It's not even false advertising, because there are girls with guns, not just girls with guns."

"Right." Teddy nodded seriously, like he understood that. "So, um... the assignment."

"Assignment!" Turtle clapped her hands a little excitedly. It was Mister Petrelli's class; she couldn't really help it. "Okay, so, which side would you like to take first?"

"I'll be for the law," Teddy offered. "And you can be against it."

Turtle gave a firm nod. "Got it."

She blinked, and went into dissenter mode. "I am advising you with the utmost concern for both our community, our nation, and your campaign, Teddy. This law needs to stay the way it is. It was put there for a good reason, and who knows what sort of chaos it will cause if you try to change it."

"But what about the people it harms? Don't they get a voice?"

"How are people named Nathan harmed by not being able to hold property? It isn't like this is the nineteenth century and the lack of property holding disallows them from voting."

"But then where do we stop? What if the next lay extends to people with N names?" Teddy countered.

"Teddy," Turtle implored him for a moment with a Verah Serious Look. "There is no next law. This one has been around for ages, and there's been no discussion of anything else because this is a law that has worked and will continue to work for many years to come. If it was going to be taken to that step, then it would have ages ago. But it hasn't, nor would it. Nathans are clearly the important distinction here."

"But Nathan's are people too, Turtle."

"People who have consistently shown that property just cannot be handle well in their hands, Teddy."

"We can't know that for certain unless we give them the opportunity," He pointed out.

"There's a large margin of difference," Turtle responded, "between completely abolishing a law, Teddy, and giving it a bit of a test run. And if you want to talk about where things end, how do you put a cap on that? Give it a test run, but who decides which Nathans give it a try? Are you suggesting we jeopardize everything by giving all Nathans the opportunity to try? And then what happens if you're wrong? We just revoke the right, after they've had a taste of it and shown us why we had the law in the first place?"

"And what if we're only enforcing an unjust law with no basis?"

"Sometimes that's a risk you have to take," Turtle answered. "And there is a basis. There wouldn't have been a law in the first place if there wasn't a reason for it."

"There are more than a few laws in place with no basis," Teddy replied. "And too many based on fear."

Touching on a personal subject? Maybe.

"And some based on pure, hard fact," Turtle offered.

"Name one instance," Teddy shot back.

"File 1923567 B," Turtle said, pulling a number out of the air, because Mister Petrelli said to have fun and throw out whatever, and so she figured she could make up a file. If this were a real case, she could have really done research and was confident that she would have found something to cite. She was no amateur here. "One Nathan Barfspringer. Through a loophole, he had inherited some property and, before anyone could blink an eye, he brought the whole town of Suckerville to ruin."

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