Leadership
\nEarly 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, \u201cTrue Leadership is having the big stick and never having to show it!\u201d 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, \u201cTrue Leadership\u201d, 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 \u201cTrue Leadership\u201d? I could not completely define it, but I certainly wanted to work towards it.
\nGrowing In Leadership
\nI 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, \u201cTo me, the word \u2018leadership\u2019 is problematic. It feels more like title or status than an on-going activity. So I am going to call it \u2018leadersmithing\u2019, because it is about apprenticeship, craft, and hours of practice.\u201d(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.
\nWhat Leadership Season Are You In?
\nI 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 \u201cleadersmithing\u2019. I am embracing the journey still trying to achieve \u2018True Leadership\u2019, Loved Ones. I am curious, what season of leadership are you in?
\n1. Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (London: Bloomsbury Business, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017), 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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