Happy Dignity Friday.
Today July 23/2021 is my official opening of my Dignity Friday Blog. My hope is that the stories I share with you about Dignity and the Dignity Model will help you as it has me navigate through the challenges we face every day.
Dr. Donna Hicks PhD is the author of the book Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture that Brings out the Best in People, defines dignity as our “Inherent right”. We are born with the right to be treated with dignity. She talks about the foundation of her dignity work comes from the story of Nelson Mandela and how he recognized that the prison guards were attempting to take their dignity. He said they will fail because no one could take his dignity. She called it the “Mandela Consciousness”. I have listed below the 10 Essential Elements of Dignity which is part of what Dr. Hicks created called the “Dignity Model”.
- Acceptance of Identity
- Acknowledgment
- Inclusion
- Safety
- Fairness
- Freedom
- Understanding
- Benefit of the Doubt
- Responsiveness
- Righting the Wrong
I will not go into all the definitions here but I encourage you to go to Dr. Hicks’ website to learn more about dignity and how it can change your life as it has mine.
Home – Donna Hicks (drdonnahicks.com)
Dignity: Building a foundation Over and Over……….
When I look back on my life, I have come to realize how blessed I have been. Even today I cannot believe the opportunities I have been given to lead. I will tell you that most of my life I have struggled to maintain and honor my dignity as well as the dignity of others. It is all tied to the times I have succeeded and the times that I have failed. Until I learned about the Dignity Model back in November of 2019, I continued on a ride that left me with more successes than failures and more dignity violations than I can count. When I began to learn about Dignity and I read Dr. Hicks’ book I had begun to understand who I was and what my purpose is as a leader, parent, and as a person. I had to first honor my own dignity as well as the dignity of others.
I have seen dignity work and I have seen it transform people and teams but the thing I have learned is that the hardest challenge is to maintain your own dignity. This is going to be my focus as I write these blogs each Friday. How do I continue to honor my own dignity?
People would tell me all the time how calm I am. Well, I want you to know that I was not always like that. The angry part of me is still there but I have learned to control it because when I did not it always led to failure and dignity violations. Each week I look at the 10 Essentials of Dignity and I ask myself how have I honored myself and others. My dignity is the foundation of how I treat myself and how I treat others. I build this foundation every day. If I do not, I will continue to violate dignity. It is a challenge for all of us. Each week I will look at a different element of Dignity and share a story of how I violated dignity, had my own dignity was violated, and how I honored dignity. It is what Dr. Hicks calls the vulnerability inventory. You cannot honor dignity without being aware or your vulnerabilities and opening up about them. Believe it or not you can be strong and vulnerable at the same time. I am learning that lesson all the time. I believe it is the strength of any great leader.
Remember………….
“You only win when you maintain your dignity. Dignity always prevails.” Dr. Don Shirley from the movie Green Book
Charles Redd
Dignity Freedom Fighter
Dignity Freedom Fighter 