Seething

Today I am mad. Not just mildly so, but boiling, seething, righteously angry. This is not petty and this is not hormonal. I have reached my limit with someone.

It is never acceptable for a leader to continue to snub someone just because the leader has a problem with his temper. Especially when he has acknowledged that he is the one who is acting badly at this point.

Leadership is sometimes more about presentation than substance, frankly. How you say things matters. What is the person who wrote this really saying? (This is from the detailed outline of our itinerary for a leadership training for camp this weekend. It's a public document, so I am not breaking my confidentiality rule.)

“Peter will be leading [the discussion on professional appearance]. This is based off a request Sandy made that we include this somewhere in the weekend. It’ll be a quick discussion on how our personal and departmental appearances make first impressions on our campers and set the attitude for our staff.”

“Mark has a special message he’s been working on. This should be inspirational and a challenge for all of us to meet. At times we all know Mark can be a little long winded, but he’s been on the [customer] side of the fence this fall (as he is each fall) to hear all the remarks about our staff performance from last summer. Please listen carefully.”

Now, if you didn’t know this person, what would you think their opinions of Sandy and Mark are? Exactly. This is not good leadership. And frankly, I am insulted and more than a little disappointed.

So today I am mad. Which is good, because I have parent teacher conferences… and therapy this afternoon. Should make for an interesting evening.