I had a nerd moment the other night as I watched the new documentary on PBS titled “Superheroes.” It is a documentary that discusses the history of comic books and superheroes. Now, I have a large collection of comics, so I was very interested in this show.
It was interesting when the documentary began to discuss “Sidekicks”. Batman and Robin became one of the first team-ups—primarily for marketing reasons. But they were also created to give Batman “someone to talk to.”
Superheroes need people to talk to; we all need someone to talk to.
I don’t want to ask you “Who is your side kick?” but, I do want to ask you “Who do you talk to?”
“Who is your Battle Buddy?”
You may be saying, “Well, I don’t have battle buddy; I’m a captain, or I’m a Lieutenant, or I’m a Sergeant First class, I don’t have about a buddy.”
My charge to you today is that you get one and I challenge you to watch out for one another. I challenge you to do more than just go to lunch.
In the suicide prevention training that I think everybody in here is familiar with we, look at three main components: Ask, Care, and Escort.
The truth of the matter, is that the key component of that model is ASK. But it is also the key component for having deeper relationships and friendships with our buddies. We need to be able to get to the point where we can ask them key questions. We need to be able to ask the question; “Are you thinking about killing yourself?” Yes, but we also need to ask the question of “How are you doing today?” “How is your relationship with your wife?” “How are your finances?” “How ( if you’re Christian) how is your daily Bible study?”
We need to ask the key questions to our buddies. We talk about intrusive leadership, but I want to challenge you to be an intrusive friend, someone that’s going to say; “Hey, tell me what’s going…and how can I help?”
But then you also have to be an open friend—a friend that will also open up. Are you going to be that friend that is just as open to share what is going on your life?
We as leaders need to take it to the next level. We need to build those friendships with others that can ask the tough questions to and that we can have asked of us. We have seen leader after leader fall and have their business all of the news. I don’t know their private lives—but, who was around them to keep them in line? Who was there to provide that intrusive friendship, that all of us need?
We need you to make a difference in your battle buddies lives, and start asking those questions.
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This post was originally a speech given to the 11th ADA BDE Leader Professional Development Training on 18 October 2013.
Photo from Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)