Pulling rank or Pulling your weight

If you have to pull rank to get your way, maybe your way isn't all that great.  If the only leg you have to stand on is the fact that you are the Master / Sensei / Sifu / whatever, then maybe you should reevaluate your position.

Leadership should make sense, and rules should have some basis in logic.  Instructors who run their academies by brute force are the lowest type of fake leaders I know.  Insisting on being obeyed, regardless of the validity of one's position, shows weakness rather than strength.

Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee 2011

I am blessed to be part of the Jhoon Rhee International organization.  Every year I am amazed by the example that is set by Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee.  Quite honestly, it's hard to live up to.

Yes, actually you ARE ready for graduation

Okay, it's rare, but sometimes I do have students who are ready to graduate even though they think they need more time.  Often this happens for Black Belt exams, since we would all like to have more time to prepare ourselves for those.  As an instructor, we have to make sure students are mentally and emotionally ready so they don't get stagnant or complacent.  For them, it's about facing fears and taking on challenges.

Sometimes it's about the elusive perfection, or a student has compared themselves to someone else in class.  Either way, the instructor has to remove that student's self-evaluation (which is flawed), and establish the proper standards for progress

No, you are NOT ready for graduation

Did you ever try the "Mom, all my friends are doing it" approach to get permission for something as a kid?  I'm sure, like me, you got the standard response, "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do that too?"  That was before bungie jumping, so I really had no come-back, but if she asked me that question today, I might just have a snappy answer!

So what happens when a student notices that all of his classmates are graduating, but he isn't?  What is your standard reply when a student thinks they are ready for the next belt level and you know they are not?