There is hope for me yet!

I am a dedicated yet reluctant community steward. I care deeply about my community and want to be actively involved in it, but left to my own instincts I would also prefer to be back stage working in a supporting role and not out on the stage actively taking part in the performance. Point me to a need and I will volunteer. Leave me to identify the need and rally support to address it... that's much tougher for me, though I don't lack for passion about needs in our community. So participating in a community stewardship program like Leadership Snohomish County (LSC) necessarily causes me to stretch beyond my normal comfort zone.

One of the concepts we recently read and discussed dealt with the leadership value of sponsorship, the proverbial putting one's money (or time, energy, freedom, maybe even life) where one's mouth is.  Sponsorship may be speaking out publicly, or it may be taking an idea and pushing, driving, kicking until a difference has been made. As Bruce Cockburn says in his song Lovers In A Dangerous Time, "Sometimes you have to kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight." 

Sponsorship says: this is what I believe, this is what I am passionate about, this, therefore, is what I shall do. And yet, passion alone may not be a sufficient guide for our community actions and efforts. When I talk to individuals who successfully advocate for community needs, who make things happen with their sponsorship, I see more than passion at work.

Oliver Segovia, writing in the Harvard Business Review a few weeks back exhorts us to forget about passion. He makes the case that it is more important to be aware of the needs around us, of our communities and neighbors, and of the world. Segovia stresses the need for a heightened degree of situational awareness and a knowledge of those things which most impact us very personally, and to cultivate an ability to work with others to solve large problems. Doing so takes us outside of ourselves and, frequently, beyond our individual passions.

As a path toward effective leadership and, more specifically, effective sponsorship, this rings very true to me. As I mull over what we have been reading and discussing in LSC, and continue to process how I will apply what I am learning, these are threads that come together to form, for me, a new perspective on community stewardship.

So how does all this translate at my personal street level? My impact team (and I feel very fortunate to be working with such a great team of talented community leaders!) is currently working to build a new basketball court for a local Boy's and Girl's Club (http://bit.ly/yXapo5). It is a wonderful project and addesses a very real community need in a very concrete (no pun intended) way.  It was not a community need that was previously on my personal radar screen, though, and building a basketball court is not part of my personal skill set. On my own, I would never have stepped up to lead this project, assuming there were far more qualified individuals than myself to tackle this kind of need. Yet our project is coming together very well so far, and each of us in playing an integral role in shepherding it forward.

This is a perfect example of the kind of beyond-personal-passion community awareness Segovia describes. It is sponsorship of an identified community need more than sponsorship of a personal passion (though both clearly have value). And it requires me to work together with many other individuals, people with more applicable skills and talents than I bring to this table, to complete this project. In so doing, I do have a constructive role to play, though it is a role I am having to stretch and learn into.

Hayden Bixby, herself an alumni of Leadership Snohomish County, recently wrote on her blog for the CURA Kenyan AIDs orphanage she sponsors with her activism, about the role of "connectors" in such projects. As someone who is naturally retiring, who would rather never pick up a phone to call someone, and who dislikes any sort of spotlight, I was inspired to hear that even she (someone I view as very successful at community sponsorship) sometimes feels stretched by the role of connecting people and needs. 

So here is what I am learning: Community stewardship and sponsorship do not necessarily depend on having a specific passion or vision.  In fact, it may be more important to listen to the needs of the community and to be willing to pick up a shovel (or phone) when and where most wanted. Passion is important, but passion needs to be linked with awareness of our communities, and not imposed on them. There is a role for everyone in community stewardship, though each of us may have to stretch ourselves to adjust to the needs that exist in our communities. There is hope for me, then, after all.

    - Kevin McKay

Feeling the love...

January 12th was our Business and Economic Development Day. I was interested in the “Women on the Move” panel discussion. Two local business women shared their stories of owning their own businesses. One piece of advice I heard that was particularly inspiring was to think, “Everyone here loves me” whenever you walk into a room. This will boost your confidence and allow you to handle whatever situation you are faced with.

I used this advice recently when I had to give a last minute presentation at work. I was not feeling
100% prepared but rather than panic I thought, “Everyone here thinks I’m awesome and they will understand if I don’t give the best presentation”. My presentation wasn’t perfect but it came across a lot better than it would have if I hadn’t felt the” love”.

My "speak up or sell out" moment

I've been thinking a lot about the "Authenticity" chapter of our curriculum this week. A glaring example of this concept came up in my job, and it threw me into a career-existential crisis. Decisions were being made at the executive level that would shape my work, and the direction of the organization, for the next year and possibly beyond. When I first learned about them, I tried very hard to fully understand what might have been driving the decision-making process and really get my head around what it meant for my team and for me, personally. After several internal deliberations, I found myself very conflicted.

I realized very quickly that the work I do is very much driven by my personal mission and values. It's much more than just a job, and my role as a leader is both to help others believe deeply in what it is I'm working toward and also to help them connect to that mission and set of values in order to find a way to make a difference.

I was encouraged by my boss (someone I regard as an amazing leader and mentor) to stand up for what I believed in and spend a little bit of my professional/social capital to get my point across to people who could change the direction of the ship. Her advice was to stick to the facts, trust that logic and sound values were on my side, and try to keep unnecessary emotion out of it as much as possible. That last part was pretty challenging given the deep-seated feelings I had about the issues at hand.

In the end, my point was well heard by the decision-makers and I felt tremendous resolve from choosing to speak up.

Team

I am enjoying getting to know my team. Moving forward from this point on, I feel like these are relationships that will be part of our lives well after Snohomish County Leadership is over. I look forward to making a difference with this group not only with this project but possibly many more in the future.

If you watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves

That was a quote I always remember from the Founders of StockPot. They literally meant it in terms of making money. But, I wanted to share how that principle applied with Meals on Wheels and our company (and there really will be a point to this that applies to the class). In November 2009, a few of us were talking about 'past lives' and how we'd done Meals on Wheels. I decided to contact Senior Services, and the idea of volunteer drivers seemed kind of new to how Snohomish County operates its program. But, we all went into it together, and we signed up for weekly delivery. We set up a voluntary sign up sheet, and the same folks started out signing up. Slowly we got up to about 6 regulars, and a half dozen sometimers. A different employee caught on to what we were doing, and informed the team that we were eligible for Campbell's Angel Points, which contributes $500 for every 25 hours you volunteer with a charity. Long story short, they submitted the teams hours, and last week we were able to present 3 $500 checks to SSSC, AND because of the total hours of the team for 2010, we were able to present a check for $6,000. Needless to say, Martha and Jane (at SSSC) were surprised and giddy over the events. The point, and how I relate leadership to all of this, is that small contributions individually, when cumulated is enormous. Leadership is about getting as many small contributions as possible, to have an enormous impact.

Gratitude

Yesterday, I went to the final meeting on our group project for the class of 2011 (best class ever.) The closing of a chapter always makes me look back at what came before, and so, as I read the section on
gratitude, I have the last nine months in my head.
I came to Leadership Snohomish excited to learn about the community I live and work in, and that my child is growing up in, and also apprehensive- feeling I had nothing to contribute in terms of actual 'leadership' (aptitude or ability.)

The first day's survey of styles revealed- unsurprisingly- my own tendency toward introversion. While I
didn't think I needed a class to tell me this about myself, I was interested to begin to look at new opportunities in working with people with different innate styles.
I was somewhat surprised when put into project groups to find myself with people who also (to varying degrees) tended toward introversion. The project we were assigned- a feasibility study for Bridgeways looking at expansion- was also the one that I felt least comfortable about. Over the coming weeks and months I found myself working with a group of incredibly intelligent, compassionate and, above all, humorous individuals. Sarri said she picked the groups at random, but I think
there may be more to it than that. Our group was supportive, efficient,effective and able to laugh at ourselves. I am incredibly grateful to have had the chance to get to know all of them and hope to count them among my friends through all our future roles in Snohomish County.

In gratitude,
Nicole

Reflections on Health and Human Services

I couldn't have been more thrilled about the topics discussed during this particular education day. For two reasons:  1) Greater insight into some of the hardships taking place in Snohomish County, 2) Leadership and the importance of human services were discussed as going hand in hand.


1)   I  first became acquainted with the violence and hardships that were and are happening at both a national and international level some years ago and remember finding it so disheartening and so upsetting that I wrote a few letters to Congress.  After reading material such as "Half the Sky," and other relevant works I have been inspired to focus on women empowerment in my next career, so I found this education day to be very informational as it touched on many of the different components I should consider being aware of. 

2)  The interpersonal component is either missed or mentioned briefly in much of the Leadership and management curriculum because there is always such a high focus on power and money. I sincerely believe that often times caring for one another becomes foreign and lost in the shuffle, at least from my perspective. For example, I have taken countless courses on management, marketing, accounting, finance, etc. where the focus is on maximizing profits and enhancing the bottom line and can only count on my hand a class or two geared toward expanding on the social dynamic in relation to being sensitive to people's needs and how to treat people like people and social responsibility owed to the community.  Afterall, it would make no sense to discuss community building without acknowledging some of the hardships experienced by many in the community. 
 


I just couldn't help but be reminded of a quote spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King that, "power without love is abusive and reckless, while love without power is sentimental and anemic."  Given this quote there clearly must be a balance between power and care for humanity especially when focusing on Leadership within a given community.  Thank you LSC!  I am grateful to impart a deeper knowledge of some of the travesties happening in the Snohomish County area.