Leading in All Seasons
Leadership
Early in my career, I led a large team of seasoned professionals. They were all much older than I was and many were in their last chapter of their professional career. I had a brand spanking new Degree (the ink was barely dry), big ideas, loads of energy, and an ego larger than life. I thought that I knew how to improve program delivery and impact the community in ways that I was sure they had not thought of. I entered their well-tuned space like a bull in a China cabinet. I immediately started dismantling old systems and creating new systems, adjusting measurements, and reassigning roles and tasks. I foolishly thought that because I had the power to do so that I should do so. I wanted everyone to know that I was in charge and that I had the final say. One day I was having lunch with one of the more tenured staff members and she said something that I have never forgotten. I asked her if she had any feedback for me or was there anything that she wanted to share with me. She looked me in my eyes and with the kindest voice she said, “True Leadership is having the big stick and never having to show it!” She rose from the table and waited for me to pay the check. OUCH! Her words pierced me like a dagger in my gut. I was immediately convicted and as I rode home on the BART train (I was living in Berkeley and working in San Francisco at the time) I replayed in my head all the times that I had treated my team as if they needed to yield to my commands. I had not been collaborative. There was nothing inspirational about my leadership style. I certainly was not a transformational leader. I was so impacted by her words that I have carried them with me for decades. That encounter also taught me to always ask for feedback, especially when I am convinced that my way in the best way. I have made it a practice to have one-on-one lunch outings as regularly as possible with my team. The two words that she used, “True Leadership”, became a goal for me in the early years. I had not encountered true leadership in my brief professional career, yet I aspired to achieve it. What is “True Leadership”? I could not completely define it, but I certainly wanted to work towards it.
Growing In Leadership
I enjoyed reading this book. It caused me to think not only about my leadership style but also about the work that I do. I own a Firm that helps Non-Profit Organizations, Churches, and Community Development Corporations with Organizational Effectiveness. I have the pleasure of working with leaders of organizations all over the country as well as in Pakistan, Dubai, and Afghanistan. I have seen functional and dysfunctional leadership styles. I have worked with self-proclaimed transformational leaders, inspirational leaders, motivational leaders, big-picture leaders, micro-managing leaders, energetic leaders, and exhausted leaders. What they all have in common is a desire to grow in their leadership style. Through our work with these leaders, the goal has always been to help them embrace leadership not as a destination but as a process. Poole describes leadership as ongoing, she writes, “To me, the word ‘leadership’ is problematic. It feels more like title or status than an on-going activity. So I am going to call it ‘leadersmithing’, because it is about apprenticeship, craft, and hours of practice.”(1) Leadership as an ongoing process that should be more about learning and less about mastering. Approaching the leadership journey from this perspective will provide leaders with a mindset to yield the most productive outcome.
What Leadership Season Are You In?
I am a leader that is changing careers. Before reading this book, I would not have defined myself in that way. I have layered responsibilities, new projects, and opportunities throughout my career. I have not seen these additions as changes but as add-ons to what I was already doing. In this new season, it is different. It is clear that I am changing careers and that will require me to examine my leadership style. Poole offered a list of seventeen Critical Incidents that she suggests we master to gain confidence as a leader. As I read them in this season of my leadership journey, there are several that I identify as areas that I will require more “leadersmithing’. I am embracing the journey still trying to achieve ‘True Leadership’, Loved Ones. I am curious, what season of leadership are you in?
1. Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (London: Bloomsbury Business, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017), 15.
About the Author
Jonita Fair-Payton
10 responses to “Leading in All Seasons”
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Great to chat today Jonita….thanks! I write about this in my blog…but as I read yours it is becoming even more clear to me. It’s almost embarrassing to admit…..but I think I have been a non-learning leader for the past little while (at least before covid….there was lots to learn to get through that season!). I think I developed a set of leadership tools and went on a bit of cruise control for 4-5 years. Now I find myself hitting a ceiling and, in some ways, being forced to recognize my need to become a learner once again. Glad to be going on the journey with other great learners like you.
Hey Scott! It was a great discussion. I understand how you feel. I have become keenly aware of the areas in my growth and development that I have just coasted along because I felt I had it covered, or I honestly felt like I had mastered it. I am beginning to embrace that I will be a life-long learner…in every way. YIKES…was that a threshold moment?
Jonita,
I love how you just jumped right in, opened yourself up to feedback, and then regularly checked in and collaborated with your staff. Too me that is courage! I am painfully aware that my lack of taking initiative or meekness can easily be a stumbling block to developing my leadership skills. To answer your question, I am in the leader in transition spot. I thought I was a leader in training. I was reminded that I have had a number of leadership roles. If there was a “reluctant leader” category that might better describe me. I am learning to shed that image of myself.
Jenny… your honesty and quiet strength are such powerful leadership qualities. I struggled (still do at times) on being too vocal and inserting my opinion when I have not been asked to share. I was not sure which to characterize myself using Poole’s leadership categories. To be completely accurate, I probably would have added “Exhausted Leader”…. that’s how I have felt for the past three years.
Ms. Jonita, thank you for re-affirming the fact that leadership is characterized by a journey not a certain destination. I like to think of becoming a leader as an apprenticeship in which you learn and practice, then you journeyed out and become a master that can take on apprentice.
Noel, I love your perspective. We journey, we grow, we evolve, we practice, and we teach. From apprentice to Master, we are either learning or teaching or maybe doing both.
I am intrigued by your writing, Jonita!
Your story shows how your experience has forged you and shaped the leadership model that you apply today. As Poole says, the process of leader-smithing lasts a lifetime. Therefore journey to achieve true leadership will last throughout the life we live. As long as we give ourselves in the process of formation according God wills and faithfully following it, God will show and instill in us the true leadership values.
Dinka, I get chills when I think about the journey of leader-smithing lasting a lifetime. What a beautiful thought that we will be learning and growing until our last breath. I pray that I never lose the thirst for growing and becoming a better version of myself.
Words are powerful. There is so much to learn.
It is an ongoing process. Thinking of leadership as a journey of growth, pruning and more growth makes the role of leadership fulfilling and doable, especially alongside other leaders on the journey.
Cathy, isn’t it exciting to know that there is still so much more to learn? I have always felt that leadership is an ongoing process. Poole helped name it for me and give it power. I’m thankful to be on this journey with you. Great job leading our group! Thank you for the time you put in preparing for our meeting.