Author: Jordan

The other day, I had a meeting about a partnership opportunity to be mentoring and teaching school-aged children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. It is indeed a great opportunity because I value giving back to the community. As a Deaf person who communicates using American Sign Language (ASL), I express my thoughts and ideas in profound ways and want to be able to share this, especially with the person I’ll be collaborating with. During this meeting, some things did not go smoothly, and I had to adjust and repeat for the sign language interpreter. The person I was collaborating with had profound questions and I had profound answers but because these were beyond the interpreter’s ability, I had a sense the conversation had to be “dumbed down” (or a lack of a better word). At the end of the meeting, it left me with some things that could have been better stated or could have been signed differently… could have this, could have that…

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that an interpreter was booked for this opportunity. Even more so, they booked the interpreter through the agency. However, the one thing that could have been done to prevent this from happening was to ask me who or which agency I prefer rather than making the booking without checking in with me. My rationale for this is that certain agencies and interpreters I have confidence in click with me, understand my thoughts and more so, have the appropriate skill level to work with me. I believe that Deaf folks should have control over who they want as their interpreter rather than the other way around. This will create an authencity where they have interpreters that are well-suited for the client. By not checking with Deaf folks, the conversation may not be as authentic for both parties. So, when working with Deaf folks, please check in with them about the interpreter they want or the agency they trust. As for the interpreters accepting the assignment, that’s another post for next time.

I have old posts I’d like to re-post. This way I can have my website journey documented with others here who are considering having their own websites set up. It may take me a bit to figure this out.

Update: It didn’t take that long for me to figure this out! 😅

As I’m working on having my website revamped, I inadvertently threw the wrench into the coding somewhere. So, I had support to come in and save the day. Hence, this is why you’re seeing this website with a clean slate. At this time, I’ll be taking a step back and will get back to this when I’m in a clear state of mind. Come back again in 3 days to see this be resurrected!

As it’s getting near Father’s Day. Here in Canada, Father’s Day is on every 3rd Sunday of June. So, this is coming up real soon.

Since becoming a father, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on my role as a father to my daughter. I’m also keen on leadership. I love to learn more about them and apply and practice them. The way I see leadership is it’s like a tool. Let’s say, for instance, leadership is like a hammer. What most of us will know about a hammer is we can use it to put a nail on the wall and then post up a picture of yourself, your family, or anything you like up there. Or you could use it to build a door. Or even bigger, a house however you want. All these examples I mentioned, they could be done for yourself. You can even do these for others, hang up a picture for someone, build a door for someone, or even build a house for someone. You can even do this for the whole block! I’m sure this feels great because you do something for yourself, your neighbour, or even your community. But if you want to do more, you only have 24 hours in a day, just like we all do, and with just this hammer you have, you can only go so far that you’ll likely exhaust yourself. And that’s where you’ll hit your limit. So, you’ll think to yourself, “I’ll need a team.” Then this is where you start to find someone to be on your team, then you train them how to use the hammer you’ve always used to hang up pictures, build doors, and houses. Again, with just the same hammer you have going in this direction, it’s very linear. I can explain more in the next post as this is going off the point here of this post.

Let’s back up a bit especially about the hammer. This hammer is like leadership. It’s a tool and how you utilize it can only go as big as you envision it to be like I explained, just to put a nail on the wall, build a door or build a house. Or anything beyond that. Leadership is a tool where you are in a position of power, in a position of authority, in a position of privilege, etc.

So, this led me to where I am at this moment. Aside from leadership, we’ll move on to fatherhood. I’m in the position of being a father to my daughter. For me as a father, I raise her by providing love, fostering care, being present, providing language, food, etc. More importantly to develop a relationship. Having a relationship will give us the opportunity to grow together and develop a bond. There will certainly be times when we’ll have our ups and downs and we’ll only get better with open communication, love, and forgiveness. This relationship will give me the opportunity to grow as a father. This is the same way it’ll give me the opportunity to grow as a leader.

By being in this position – as a leader and as a father – it comes with responsibilities. For those who know Spiderman, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben said this: With great power comes with great responsibility. I know there are many similar quotes but I’m using this as it appears to be what most people are familiar with. For those in these positions, it takes wisdom to know how to utilize it. I’m sure there are people you may know who were in leadership positions who are either great or not so great. The ones who were not so great are often because they didn’t know how to handle being in a leadership position. Or even had the skills to utilize it. Like the hammer. For those who didn’t know how to use it, often it makes them less effective leaders or fathers.

So, being a father and a leader comes with responsibility. I am by far not perfect. And I will make mistakes and I will learn from them. Be quick to forgive. Strengthen relationships and so on. It’s like walking around with a hammer, there are ways how this can be utilized either to destroy a house, door, or picture. Or to build them all.

What else here do you see fatherhood and leadership have in common?

Hi, I’m Jordan. For those of you who don’t know me, it’s all good even though I just told you my name. I’ll assume there may be some of you who know me or not. But for those who don’t know me, where are my manners? Right?! Anyways, let’s do this again. I’m Jordan and I’m Deaf. I was born here in Winnipeg and currently living here but did move around a bit. Will get to that later in the upcoming vlogs. Anyways, what I’ll be vlogging about will be mostly about ASL and some on Deaf Culture. I chose these topics because information and resources about ASL and Deaf Culture are lacking. So, this is where I come in and start vlogging about these! We can get connected through social media. Will let you know later as we go. Let’s get connected and follow me here!