Friday is Opinion Day this Week

1.This opinion I've had for quite some time but I believe it still holds true most of the time. 

Sports coaches do not make good leaders. Now some good leaders may have been good coaches but the automatic assumption that if someone has coached teams or even simply been a physical education teacher puts them automatically in the leader category is flawed. 

Coaches don't play on a team, they tend to direct and boss the team. This makes them loners and at times cheerleaders. True leaders feel that they are part of the team. Sometimes they have been part of the team they are leading and if not they create a team around them so they can continue to cooperate, collaborate and consult. Leaders don't shy away from making the hard decisions but they take their team with them when they do.

This may be what caused our previous Prime Minister to lose his team and his constituents. He had a passion for hockey and I suspect his dream would be to coach a winning team. Our current Prime Minister would more likely be a player on the team working with his teammates to win the game.

2. Facebook can be a fun place to spend some time. I have learned some interesting things while scanning the contents of what my friends post. At other times it is just a filler and I could be doing something much more productive with my time. It reminds me of a staff room at a work place. We all have experienced a staff room at one time or other. This is where we congregate to get away from the task at hand for a little bit. 

As soon as we cross the threshold of the room we become a character. We could be the one who makes everyone laugh. The one who starts complaining immediately. The one who looks as if he/has the weight of the world on his/her shoulders. 

There is the closet racist, the misogynist, the angry person who can be triggered over anything. There is the pacifier, the mediator and the genuinely good person who makes everyone feel a bit guilty.

We choose who we want to sit by or who we go to talk to although there are times we get stuck near the one person who pushes our buttons and we go back to our desks or classrooms or labs or office cubicle wishing we had gone for a walk on our break. Or sometimes we come back refreshed and excited after being rejuvenated by someone else. 

We don't always know which character we "play" but there is no doubt we are one. We play these same roles on Facebook much as we may believe we are hidden somewhat since no one can see us. We learn from the people in our staff room who do or say things that annoy or offend us and often make a commitment not to be like that ourselves. The same chances to grow and learn as a person are on Facebook.

Facebook may appear shallow or light on the content at times but we can always learn a lot about human nature from participating. 

What we do not do in a staffroom (I hope) is stick a sign on a bullied kid or an elderly person that asks people to like them. If someone did this in my staffroom I would ask them what they hope to achieve with this action. I may learn that their intent was honourable if misguided and I may also be able to show them how demeaning this is for the person pictured. 

For now I choose to believe these posts are fiction and as such do not need a response of any kind. 

Sincerely,
The Opinionator