I saw the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere, and I heard something I never caught before, right after they discover who the Wizard really was.
You know the scene. Toto pulls back the curtain, and the Wizard must think fast and figure out how to deliver on his promise. He tells each of them that they already have the one thing they thought everyone else had but they didn't.
I've seen this movie more times than I can count, and for the first time, I thought about what happens on the yellow brick road.
The Scarecrow spends the entire journey solving problems while insisting he doesn't have a brain. The Lion is terrified the whole movie and then walks straight into danger for his friends every single time, calling himself a coward all along the way.
They already had all of it. Even the Tin Man, so sure he had no heart, wept over Dorothy in the poppy field. The Wizard handed them proof and permission to believe it.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how much that sounds like the young adults I've sat across from over the last decade.
A student told me last month she didn't have any leadership experience, and in the same conversation she described running a fundraiser that outraised every other one her school had done in years. She coordinated a team, managed the budget, and solved a vendor problem two days before the event. Her read on all of it was that it was only something for school.
She had the skill. She was standing in it. What she didn't have was someone telling her, out loud, that it counted.
And then there's Dorothy, who might be the best example of all. She's convinced she has to meet the Wizard to find her way back. We all know how it ends; she clicks her heels and says there's no place like home. The shoes were never the trick. She had to walk the road before she'd believe it.
That's the part of coaching young adults I love most. We're not handing anyone a brain or a heart or courage they don't have. We're standing next to them while they realize they already have it, then helping them trust what they know so they can move forward.
Nobody clicks their heels for you. But it helps to have someone next to you who already knows the shoes work.
