Thursday was a meeting day. My day started with facilitating a group of Servant-Leaders and ended facilitating an Asperger support group. While there were distinct differences between the groups there were also distinct similarities between them.
I’ve been facilitating the Servant-Leaders group for just over two years. We gather once a month as a group to explore the leadership philosophy inspired by Robert K. Greenleaf. S-L is a participative leadership style where the leader’s role is to engage others to make the highest and best use of their gifts and talents. The group has become quite collegial over time and I look forward to gathering with them each month.
I was asked to meet with members of the Asperger support group to talk about interviewing skills. Aspergeris a condition, along the autism spectrum, that often impacts social skills. I had only met with the group once before. The group’s organizer met with parents and partners in one room while I met with the job seekers in another room.
Both groups were a collection of distinct and diverse personalities. Thinking back to the first time the S-L group met, I don’t know that the Asperger group was any more (or less) tentative in their interactions. While the focus of Mainstreaming on Main Street is on the inclusion of persons with disabling conditions in work and community life, I make no claim regarding expertise in any specific disabling condition. This left me with a challenge in knowing how to best serve the Asperger group.
In the absence of expert knowledge I decided to just treat the members of the Asperger group the same way I treat the Servant-Leaders group. We are all whole people striving to do our best in life. I avoid treating the college president different from the recent college graduate different from the nonprofit executive different from… It proved a good strategy and I am hopeful both groups gained something from the time we spent together.
I am not at all surprised to find I was enriched by both experiences.
Mainstreaming on Main Street
Purpose: Bridging the gap between dependence and interdependence, doing for and doing with, charity and justice
www.mainstreamingonmainstreet.com/
Mainstreaming on Main Street 
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