The Power of the Shared Why

Agree or disagree with them, the kids that got the March For Our Lives (MFOL) marches going in Washington and around the country and world this weekend knew their "why". I was in the middle of hundreds of thousands of them of them on Saturday afternoon. I listened to three hours of speakers, none of them over 18, who were crystal clear on their why.

Starting with our why is a common calling at my job. If you can stay focused on that, it makes defining the what and how clearer, if not always easier. 

These kids knew their why, and across the country they may have gotten a million or more people of all ages to SHOW UP and share their why. And while this march may have started with Parkland, Florida and the kids of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, they knew they had a shared why and a shared experience with kids from other shootings at Columbine, Newtown, and earlier last week in Great Mills, MD. They also engaged kids of color from Chicago, Washington DC and Los Angeles who deal with less publicized and more regular gun violence as an everyday fact of life.

We have yet to see where this all goes, but I doubt it's going away anytime soon. All these young people will be voting and running for office soon and I am sure we haven't seen the last of them. And this may be the end of the low turnout among young people we've heard about for years. Watch out. 

And  there's a broader question for all of us who are leaders. Do we know our why and can we turn it into a compelling vision to get people to follow us. MFOL is certainly not something we see every day and most of us aren't dealing with life or death issues in our day to day work. But there's still a lesson here. Whatever it is we are trying to do, leaders have to craft a why that's compelling and resonates with the people we want to follow us. And followership is not not guaranteed. And once you get it, you have to continue to earn it. 

For now, these kids have it figured out they leave me inspired and hopeful and excited about what they will do next. And as a leader, they challenge me to always work on the why. 

Amen