Are you this kind of leader?

Yesterday I read the saddest Facebook post ever.

A foster mom was ready to throw in the towel.

But she couldn’t.

Because she “knew too much” she HAD to keep helping kids, broken as she was.

Although The System broke her, she wasn’t going to let that keep her from helping kids.

My post yesterday was about this same problem:

—human service systems that don’t work as intended—

for clients, workers, or society.

• Systems that turn many workers into unempathic people just clocking in because of paychecks and benefits.

The most tragic part of the post?

A comment thread a MILE LONG with other foster parents in the same place.

Telling the EXACT same story.

I never worked for child protective services because it was such a broken system.

I got a masters degree in social welfare with an emphasis on planning to change inadequate and inefficient systems so agencies would actually fulfill their mission statements.

But then I became “just” a social worker.

I was reprimanded for “complaining” when I’d point out things that needed change.

After waiting two years to talk to my department head about an important change, her greeting was:

— “What was once an asset to our agency is now a liability.”

(Six months later my body broke and I lost my career to a disability.)

…

Just about every other person in my authors program was either writing about leadership or burnout.

Whoever you are,
keep pushing your message.

• Each one of those foster kids can either get helped or more hurt, shouldering the load of failed leadership for a lifetime.

It’s up to the adults in the room to take charge and make essential changes happen.

After D-Day 80 years ago today, Western Europe committed to social investments to prevent inequality in suffering.

They created health and education services accessible to all, as well as physical infrastructure like transportation to serve everyone.

• The lofty and not unrealistic goal was to promote individual well-being and social cohesion.

Their efforts were highly successful and for decades since, quality of life across the pond is vastly different from the USA.

Years ago when my son was young and I worked two jobs, in my field, with a masters degree, my French sister-in-law was visiting.

She started describing support for parents and families in France.

I told her to stop.

I was getting enraged with envy.

The difference in realities was physically hurting my body hearing it.

—.—

Things don’t have to be as hard and dysfunctional as they are.

There are other ways of living.

• It’s systems, not individuals, making society what it is.

And, smart and empathetic individuals within systems make good change happen.

I knew one of them.
Phil Lee.

He designed and implemented Medicare for the United States.

But when Clinton invited him back to design his health care program his plan never saw the light of day.

Because another system blocked it.

He underestimated the power of insurance companies.

—Julie