Ducks and Turkeys

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Dear Student Leader,

Don’t worry, there will be no name-calling in this week’s letter. If you remember, I posted a letter warning you not to act like a cow or a bear. I will not do that again.

During this week’s outdoor running adventure, I took a new route and crossed flocks of turkeys and ducks. The random path put me on a street where I stumbled into a coworker. Both were chance encounters, but they prompted this week’s message.

Read on to see what ducks, turkeys, and associates can teach you about leadership.

I will start with ducks.

What do you know about ducks? Unless you’re a biology major with plans to pursue veterinary medicine, likely not much. Maybe, you know, they make a “quack” sound from your days in kindergarten or the Donald Duck character in cartoons.

From our AI “friend,” I learned that Mallard female ducks make the high-pitched quacking sound, whereas males, the drakes, are often larger, more colorful, and form a lower raspy sound with their beaks.

Let’s discuss turkeys.

Perhaps your working knowledge of turkeys is that they taste good with hot sauce or dressing at Thanksgiving dinners.

In a 2023 article for National Geographic, writer Handerweck discussed the surge in wild turkeys throughout New Hampshire. A biologist reintroduced 25 turkeys to the western part of the state, and in fifty years the population increased to 45,000. Wild turkeys in the US thrive in suburban communities with wood, open spaces, and people willing to feed them birdseed.

Ducks and turkeys are often associated with cowardice and evasiveness in popular culture. Eg “Don’t be a turkey!” “Why are you ducking out early?”

Ducks and Turkeys, the first initial common to both animals, happens to correspond with a popular politician. He sends federal agents into Minnesota communities and authorizes inhumane actions to “make America safe again.”

If you’re questioning when America was safe, think about when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue to the Americas with diseases and committed violent crimes against indigenous peoples in the name of a queen. 

Is there a correlation between ducks, turkeys, and DT? You decide.

As leaders, we must cultivate the courage to make noise or quack about injustices. We cannot remain silent about abuses of power. The protests in Minnesota speak to the power of collective courageous voices.

By championing worthy causes, we can increase our numbers like wild turkeys. Identify your comrades or associates and lead a group of like-minded people.

Express your perspectives, in private or online, to attract a flock of followers. Don’t be a duck or turkey. Learn from them and increase your chances of survival in hostile environments.

Stay optimistic and align with others who share a positive vision for themselves and the community.

After encountering the wildlife on my run, I ran into one of my coworkers. We stayed together and talked for a few minutes about a book we had read, then split in different directions.

To embody leadership, you must stay fit and flexible to host impromptu meetings and then do the work.

Progress requires collaboration, discipline, and, in some instances, isolation. Use discernment to determine the appropriate strategy to achieve your goal.

Effective leadership understands when to quack, when to remain silent, and when to expand. Confused? Each week in February, I will expand on these leadership perspectives with examples from Black history.

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