Planting seeds

Leadership challenge: Be a drum major for justice

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On Jan. 17, 2022, we will celebrate the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not just this one day but every day, it is important to spend time in reflection on the leadership lessons that we can learn from Dr. King’s example. He can be characterized as the Moses of the civil rights movement who cried out for freedom and justice. Like Moses, he led the Black community from the wilderness of racial oppression during the Jim Crow era to the pathway to the promised land of liberation. This journey is still a daily battle in the United States as evidenced by the challenges experienced in the African American community today like the ever-widening wealth gap, impact of mass incarceration, healthcare disparities, and educational inequities.
Dr. King’s prophetic vision of becoming a drum major for justice is a call to action through the exercise of leadership. On Feb. 4, 1968, just two months before he was assassinated, Dr. King shared reflections on leadership in his prolific speech: “The Drum Major Instinct.” This speech challenges us to define leadership through a commitment to service and an open demonstration of love for others. These three leadership lessons can serve as a guide:

1. To be great, you must become a servant
Leaders must overcome some of the tendencies of human nature, like the focus on achieving a sense of importance and obtaining prominence, in order to truly reach the height of one’s leadership potential. Dr. King characterized these aspirations as the drum major instinct:
“And there is deep down within all of us an instinct. It’s a kind of drum major instinct – a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first. And it is something that runs the whole gamut of life.”
Being a drum major is intuitive. However, Dr. King challenged us to explore how we will maximize our leadership influence. Will you use your leadership position to simply gain more power without taking into consideration your impact? Alternatively, Dr. King offers leaders the opportunity to harness this power for the common good by empowering others to lead, modeling the qualities of a servant, and advancing racial justice.

2. Be first in modeling excellence
Leaders not only show the way, but they lead the way. Dr. King challenged leaders to model excellence in service and acts of love. By modeling the way, your life will become a source of inspiration to others. This is the type of leadership that sparked the Civil Rights Movement as people from all walks of life discovered their ability to lead social change in their communities and the nation following Dr. King’s example. This is a focus on putting first things first:
“But I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. That is what I want you to do.”

3. Empower others to lead
Everyone has a role to play. Each person has a unique composition of leadership strengths that when leveraged strategically can have a tremendous effect. The 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott is a profound example of the power of collective engagement. Once the community took a stand against segregation, nothing could stand in their way. For 381 days, they exercised leadership as they challenged injustice through their words and deeds. According to Dr. King, everyone has a key role to play in creating change:
“And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”
The essence of the drum major instinct transforms the traditional notion of leadership and offers a glimpse of an alternative paradigm. Traditionally, leadership has been defined by a position, title, or exercise of power; however, this new definition offers a challenge for each of us to focus on serving the needs of others and making a difference. We are left with a call to action – will you follow Dr. King’s example and take heed to your call to serve?
Now is the time to be a drum major for justice, be a drum major for peace, and be a drum major for righteousness.
Join me at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Community Celebration at St. Cloud State University where I will share about the importance of becoming a drum major for justice. This is a multi-day, multi-generational, and hybrid event that will explore the theme “Trust & Healing in the Beloved Community.” All activities take place Jan. 15-17, 2022.
Registration is available online: https://www.stcloudstate.edu/care/mlk-communitycelebration.
Encourage youth in grades K-5 to participate in the 2022 MLK Youth Writing Competition sponsored by the MN Twins and Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute. Learn more: www.ppgjli.org.
Through her organization, Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute, Dr. Artika Tyner seeks to plant seeds of social change through education, training, and community outreach.

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