“Legitimize immediately and often.”
A mantra and must-do for every successful meeting. We started off Friday morning off with just this by everyone introducing ourselves and sharing the best advice we have been given on leading:
- Keep composure in spite of impatience
- Best way–> role model behavior
- Learn to be happy with partial success
- Active listening– acknowledge
- Follow & give clear instructions
- Everyone has a different point of view– important to understand
- Be nice, donʻt be a jerk!
- Bring out leadership in others and keep your hands down (work)
- I do, we do, you do
- Speak when youʻre angry and youʻll make the best speech youʻll ever regret
- Focus on the 10%–not the 90% (identify the most important thing)
- Admit when wrong; have humility
- Lead with respect & promote respect
- Know what youʻre trying to accomplish and how you will do it
- Do what you say; have follow through
- Always be organized and prepared
- Have a clear vision–long-term sight and goal
- Never miss a chance to keep your mouth shut
- Be supportive and give recognition often
- Give people opportunity to contribute
- Work with heart
Bringing the advice of mentors and family members and our various perspectives into the room opened nicely into the focus of collaborative leadership. As Donna Ching teaches, “Collaborative Leadership is the art of leading people as they work together to successfully accomplish both individual and collective goals.” Learning, practicing, and mastering facilitative skills is the foundation to being an effective collaborative leader.
We dug right in, and fully dissected meetings (whenever two or more people interact)– from reasons to roles, then practiced facilitating and recording. We learned the “make or break” importance of differentiating content from process, and how making that distinction isnʻt always so obvious. We touched on systems thinking theory to even how to hold your Mr. Sketch scented, chisel-tipped markers (of which Donna sent us all home with a complimentary pack).
After a full day one with Donna, she and her husband were so kind to invite us to their home for dinner with ALP Oʻahu alumni. They had a house full of emerging and established collaborative leaders and our class probably now has a new and expanded list of the “best advice we have been given.”
- Backyard tour with Dr. Skip Bittenbender. Photo by Catherine Toth Fox.
