Not of Words but of Deeds

I was in probably my third or fourth year of teaching agriculture at South Granville when one one of my students asked me the following string of questions "Why do you spend so much time with us potting plants? You are the teacher aren't you? Shouldn't you just be telling us what to do?" At the time, I just kind of shrugged it off at the time with a response of "It has to be done," but upon further reflection, it was my belief in doing the right thing which as a leadership concept is referred to as authenticity.

According to Weber (2010), authenticity is "the consistency between what you value and how you act" (p. 166). He proceeds to offer an example of a leader who advocates for gender equality but only appoints men in senior leadership positions as being very inauthentic. If that leader is aware, they can suffer from many personal problems such as disappointment or regret. In my example in the first paragraph, I have the personal belief that all people should put in effort when the job needs to be done. It is only authentic if we do what we say when we are in leadership roles.

As a agricultural teacher educator in training, I truly understand sharing the importance of the concept of authenticity with all of my teachers, whether they are in their first year or thirtieth year in the classroom. As agricultural teachers, we are expected to share with our students the FFA Creed. At the beginning of the creed, E.M Tiffany writes "I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds." In my situation with my former student, I was showing them with my deeds how to operate a business, not telling them with my words. My actions were counter intuitive to their previous belief of their role of a classroom teacher. To be authentic as a leader, you can't be afraid to get your hands dirty.