A True Leader is Never Indispensible

(Expanding on a LinkedIn article)

When I came across this article, I was glad to see some people are changing the standards…
How I Hire: I Look For Your Failures, and Your Character

but where this comes into play is my own school. For the years that I’ve been teaching the martial arts, I’ve always told students that my job was to get them to the senior ranks quicker and easier than I had done it. Since I had many of my own struggles and challenges to get through, each student should benefit from those experiences.

Their training and experiences should carry the school…lineage…to the next generation and beyond. The student brings their desire for learning to the school and with them their joy and creativity. Good students learn from each other as well.

The really good students don’t just mimic the training. They look inside to find what’s really there. This is illustrated in something as simple as teaching for me. All the students can be lead through the regular drills and perform them correctly. The good students see the structure within the drills. They not only remember the order in which to do basics but they make them a part of their training.

I have never had a specific “Leadership” program nor have I had a real “instructor training” program. My thought has been that those who WANT it will ask about how to do it. They will be the ones that I call upon to teach when I can’t. They are the ones who develop branch schools. They are also the ones who make me unnecessary and that is one of my goals. Yes, it is my goal to pass on everything that I can for as long as I can then be replaced by all those who have been training harder and digging deeper and understanding further. This has been one of my goals for as long as I can remember.

My belief is that this method will create true martial artists who are proud of their training, curriculum and lineage. It has to be more than a job. It MUST be a passion. These are the martial artist and schools that will survive. They are not the one who gain a little knowledge and run off to open their own “style”. These will be the true masters.

So, I hope that my students start…if they haven’t already…thinking about 1) why they train, 2) what they want to accomplish, and 3) what are they going to do with their knowledge (where/how will they use it).