Leadership For a Better World: Dialogue
2021 is starting right where we left off in 2020 with exceptionally high political tension — humans living behind screens, yelling at each other with no intention other than right. Or so, it seems. The media, especially social media and big media companies like Fox News and CNN, feed into our fear of the other side destroying the universe.
What happened to actually having a dialogue with one another? Have we forgotten that we are all human and actually desire most of the same things? Safety, access to food, love, and a roof over our heads. Today I had a conversation with a good friend of mine who has different political views than me. We could have gotten entrenched in our own arguments, doing whatever is possible to cast our opinion as right or truth. Instead, we had a positive discussion revolving around the current issues this week at the Capitol and Twitter, putting Trump on mute.
Whenever something egregious happens like the Capitol storming on Wednesday, we immediately huddle up in our bunker with people who think the same and start firing word bombs at the other side with no intention of understanding one another. I believe we’re better than that, though.
If we are going to come together during these tumultuous times, we need to have conversations. To be a leader and build a better world for the next generation, we must have thoughtful discussions with people we disagree with. We can’t cancel every person who disagrees with us because it makes the situation worse in all actuality.
Of course, it’s not easy having these discussions, but leadership isn’t an easy task. Leadership is an opportunity to rise above and serve our fellow humans to build a better world. How can we achieve a better world for all people if we don’t respect one another’s perspectives?
We can and need to drop our digital weapons so we can actually build a better world. What does that look like? It looks like avoiding name-calling, generalizing, and categorizing each other into groups. We use our two ears given to us and one mouth to listen to others but also voice our own opinions too.
I believe that if we emphasize dialogue, we can get through these divided times. It’s going to take courage, though, but if you’ve read this far, I believe that you are a leader. A leader who can rise above the challenge and slowly but surely have difficult conversations will genuinely unite us.
