respect — from the latin word respicere, meaning, “the willingness to look again”
Perhaps the most important aspect of the leader is the ability to extend honor and respect. Honor is the capacity to confer respect to another individual. We become honorable when our capacities for respect are expressed and strengthened.
There are two causes for all misunderstandings: not saying what we mean, and not doing what we say. When we say what we mean and do what we say, we become trustworthy.
The leader is willing to take a second look rather than remain stuck in a particular view of a situation or individual.
In volume 1 of Roger Moody’s The Indigenous Voice, Chief Sitting Bull describes what happens when respect is not extended and when words and actions are not consistent:
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****What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one.
****What treaty that the white man ever made with us have they kept? Not one.
****When I was a boy the Sioux owned the world; the sun rose and set on their land; they sent thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them? What white man can say I ever stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet, they say I am a thief. What white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian. What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and unfed? Who has ever seen me beat my wives or abuse my children? What law have I broken? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am a Sioux; because I was born where my father lived; because I would die for my people and my country?
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Regardless of our cultural identity, it is important to consider the personal and professional treaties we have kept and honored, and those we have broken. Children recognize when they cry, “But you broke your promise.”
From: The Four-Fold Way by Angeles Arrien
