“Everyone is going to draw lines for you, especially when they think you should have achieved something or proved something or become something by a specific time. But it’s your job to reimagine these lines — to cross them, to jump them, and in some cases to ignore them altogether.”
Academy Award-winning actor Benicio del Toro Mercersburg Academy Class of 1985 2018 Commencement Address.
Reimagining is a powerful visioning tool. When was the last time you reimagined what you are doing or hoping to achieve? Why is it that sometimes we just allow things to happen rather than make things happen? We as servant leaders should capture a picture of what could be or should be regardless of what is and encourage others to do so as well. Perhaps to be useful and of service to others, we have to be willing to reimagine being helpful to others’ successes.
Senior leaders successfully use this strategy when they reimagine company culture to better define not just how we will work together but how we will choose to serve our customers. In both personal and corporate cases, it is about being intentional.
While serving on the faculty at Mercersburg Academy from 1984- 1988, my wife Colleen and I were dorm parents living on the first floor of Fowl Hall. Benicio, who we called Beno, was our senior prefect and lived on our floor. Although we have not remained close these past 32 years, due to our brief shared experience, we have followed Benicio’s acting career with great interest.
Please take a moment and let me know whose career you follow with great interest.
Onward!
John Rodgers