Leadership Isn’t Loud

"Self praise is no praise at all." It was a phrase I heard often as a child. In my family, its origin traced back to my great-grandmother, Nana Mame. However, this old proverb has been passed down for ages. You see, as a kid growing up, if I felt that I wasn’t praised for my work quickly enough, I was very quick to call attention to my deeds and my effort. It is something I still struggle with today, but I am actively working on it.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for our current administration.

Everything he does is the best. Every bill is beautiful. Every law is breakable for him. Any judge who goes against him is a leftist, Marxist, anarchist who just wants to take him down.

Humility, as defined, is having a modest or low view of one's own importance. With that come the traits of self-awareness, modesty, respect for others, and openness.

Being self-aware means being able to evaluate your strengths and your weaknesses, so you can surround yourself with the type of people who help fill in the gaps in your own personal repertoire.

Modesty means letting your actions speak louder than your words. If a bill really is beautiful, let it play out and be beautiful. Don’t spend ten minutes going on about how lucky we are to have a guy like Trump to make such a bill possible. Modesty means not throwing yourself a birthday military parade—the first of its kind in our nation’s history. Knowing it’s never been done before would be enough for the modest crowd to pass.

Respect for others is a huge sign of being humble. You never know who you are interacting with and what they know. And even if only for the purpose of personal gain, the idea that you could offend someone who someday might be able to help you should be reason enough to treat others with respect. Besides, the Bible tells us to do so—but that’s too confusing an idea for today’s Republican Party to comprehend.

Openness means admitting you were wrong and learning from your mistakes. Trump is still claiming the Central Park Five were guilty, long after their false imprisonment and full exoneration. He used the presidential podium to defame a woman he sexually assaulted.

And to show that I don’t only focus on the Trump administration, let’s look at Texas.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick held a press conference to celebrate himself costing more than 5,000 Texans their jobs and costing the state millions in tax revenue. He then lied and spoke of the poison that was supposedly being sold to our children. This came after he spoke with major leaders regarding cannabis culture, production, and policy. There was no changing his mind. He was going to have his moment.

Gov. Greg Abbott is no better. He used underhanded tactics and outright blackmail to get his voucher scam passed. Parents, educational experts, and religious leaders were all against vouchers, but Abbott was nowhere near open-minded when it came to hearing from his constituents. He took a billionaire’s money already, and he was going to make sure vouchers passed no matter what.

In the time it took to pass the bill, he showed absolutely zero respect for our state’s educators, calling them a source of indoctrination, claiming that schools were letting students use litter boxes in classrooms instead of actual restrooms, calling for the firing of teachers on the spot for allowing discussions of transgenderism, and saying that our schools are teaching Critical Race Theory. All of these statements show a serious level of disrespect for members of society like my wife and fellow Born on the Bayou host Scott, who have dedicated their lives to educating our youth.

Serving your district, your state, or your country is an honor. And yes, you do become an important person when you hold one of these positions. But that doesn’t mean you become the most important person on the planet. A leader who understands their true calling is one who gets out of the way and lets their people prosper.

When I think of a humble leader, I can’t help but think of my own father. As the proprietor of a restaurant while I was growing up, the number of managers who worked under his guidance before running their own businesses was massive. He had a “coaching tree” that could rival Bill Walsh. He loved helping others grow and learn how to run a business. At one point, he became a finisher, helping future proprietors be as ready as possible before accepting the keys to their own store.

He went to Afghanistan to help feed our troops. He supported tons of youth and charitable organizations—and never told anyone. He simply hung up the plaque in the lobby and kept on running his business. The community knew what he did, and they supported his business because of it. (Side note for the Clear Lake, TX readers—he was eventually named the Luna