{"id":35832,"date":"2024-02-14T20:35:19","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T04:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35832"},"modified":"2024-02-15T04:22:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T12:22:36","slug":"growing-leaders-for-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/growing-leaders-for-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing leaders for tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

I felt as though I was at home when reading Leadersmithing<\/em> by Eve Poole[1]<\/a>. The concepts in the book easily relate to the profession I have been practicing for the last 24 years. The concepts, language, and exercises were familiar. We use variations of many of the exercises in our leadership in-service training classes.<\/p>\n

In the first chapter, Poole asked a poignant question. \u201cWhat do I know now that I wish I knew 10 years ago?\u201d[2]<\/a> \u00a0I have been puzzling with this all week. But it raised another question for me. What could I be doing better today? Asking this will help me hone \u00a0my skills so I can continue to grow.<\/p>\n

When new employees join our organization, they complete an onboarding program that takes ninety days. Onboarding includes site specific training, online training, an orientation meeting, and weekly meetings with a navigator, a seasoned staff person not in their report line, who serves as a mentor. The area that takes center stage is character as outlined in our core values of honesty, accountability, dignity, community building, growth-constantly learning, and sustainability. To successfully live these core values takes character. We don\u2019t expect perfection, but we want honesty. In our orientation meeting, we go over those major items, sharing that the consequences for making a mistake and correcting it are much less than hiding it and getting caught. It is in the small things when people choose to make difficult choices over easy ones, time after time, which builds into the character. Poole likens it to the two of hearts apprentice piece of character. [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Character is more than simply adhering to rules out of fear of consequences. Character is about who we are. As Poole says, character is about being rather than doing. When Poole mentioned princes slaying dragons and that people may not be conquering external threats as much as mastering themselves[4]<\/a> I thought of the Hero\u2019s Journey<\/em> \u00a0where the hero conquers something dangerous then returns forever changed[5]<\/a>. Both are about people being transformed by their struggles to overcome difficulties. I do believe character can grow and people can change. I like Habit 7 in Stephen Covey\u2019s[6]<\/a> book that is a cornerstone for many effective habits and the critical incidents from Poole. Covey recommends that the nurturing of self: body, mind, spirit, and emotions will help with every other tool or skill we develop. This is because it keeps the person in balance in their life. Both Covey and Poole agree that balance that allows for times to re-energize is important for overall growth and productivity.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

So, what do I wish I knew 10 years ago that I know today? Some of the things that surfaced for me fit nicely into Poole\u2019s list of Critical incidents.[8]<\/a> Others did not.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I know that things will change, and that change is important for growth. Currently, I am in a sweet spot professionally, but if I have learned anything, I know it can change in a minute. Poole #3: Coping with increasing change.<\/li>\n
  2. I have learned that the CEO does not have a peer at work. I have many meaningful relationships with people who work for me, but there are times when I need to be the person holding the Ace of Spades and have difficult conversations with people.[9]<\/a> It might not be about a request the person is making as Poole used in her example, but perhaps a performance issue. Whatever it is, the technique Poole suggests works. These conversations still are not pleasant, but they are important for the growth of the employee or the work.<\/li>\n
  3. I know that even the most difficult situations will eventually resolve. These are the kinds of issues that build character. However, in 2017 several people we served passed away due to disease progression related to their disability. Not only were we caring for a lot of people, our staff and clients were grieving. I was grieving. Looking back, I should have gotten outside help to process grief. Poole #15: Knowing when to seek help and advice.[10]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So much of what Eve Poole wrote about, I have been living. There have been so many lessons. Some have been mastered and there is definite muscle memory. Most of the Spades group comes naturally now. I still do not like having difficult conversations but have learned that if I lay the groundwork with regular times for one-on-one meetings with my direct reports, there are fewer difficult conversations needed and when they are, the other person is not blindsided.<\/p>\n

    Finally, what could I be doing better today? In late November we opened a thrift store to help promote sustainability and give our clients real work experience. This is an exciting venture yet very scary. I need to continue to support the store manager, but I also have to trust that his retail experience will be a good guide. I need to be careful not to micromanage him.<\/p>\n

    Concepts and techniques in Leadersmithing <\/em>will be particularly useful for my NPO topic of Executive Leadership Transition. For the last five years I have been preparing my team to do my job. Sounds strange but important. It is exciting to watch them grow in their board interactions related to their service center and present reports at board meetings. I don\u2019t know the person who will ultimately replace me when the time comes, but there are members of my team that will be capable of stepping in, whether as an interim or full replacement. The satisfying piece for me is that those individuals will have skills that they can take with them wherever their career path leads. Whether it is where we all work now or some new place that will give them new places to flex their leadership muscles, it is what mentoring others into leadership means to me.<\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Eve Poole, Leadersmithing, Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (London: Bloomsbury Publishing,2017)<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Poole, 10<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Poole, 174-176<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Poole, 49<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces<\/em> 3rd<\/sup> ed. (Novato: New World Library, 2008),14-15<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> Covey 341-345<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Poole, 100<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/a> \u00a0Poole, 10-32<\/p>\n

    [9]<\/a> Poole, 126<\/p>\n

    [10]<\/a> Poole, 29<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I felt as though I was at home when reading Leadersmithing by Eve Poole[1]. The concepts in the book easily relate to the profession I have been practicing for the last 24 years. The concepts, language, and exercises were familiar. We use variations of many of the exercises in our leadership in-service training classes. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2090],"class_list":["post-35832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-poole","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35842,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35832\/revisions\/35842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}