Fellow leaders,
Mara here! Last week, my dad (Frederick) shared with you that we have a weekly leadership meeting. Today, I’m writing to tell you why the leadership meeting works for me, a developing young leader. I haven’t always seen myself as a “leader,” mostly because the common characteristic when thinking of “leader” is heroism. While working with SLC, I have begun to develop my own definition of “leader.” Through many meetings and conversations with my dad, consistent actions came to mind: communication, support, intention, growth, vision, insight, safety… What it comes down to for me, is the recognition that leaderships isn’t just about being “the boss,” but recognizing you are the cultivator for the next generation of “you’s.” As a 23-year-old developing leader, these meetings work for me because I feel valued, I feel heard, and I feel the growth and exploration taking over. It can be hard being from a younger generation, constantly feeling like an imposter while simultaneously feeling as though I should be further ahead and more knowledgeable than I am. The ideologies of the leadership I grew up understanding are changing, opening up more space for those who don’t see themselves as the “hero.” How can we make leadership more accessible? Today, I want you think about how you are growing the next generation of “you’s.” Regardless of your position, what are you doing every day to grow someone else? If you don’t have anything that comes to mind, reflect on that. If we don’t take the time and energy to be a gardener to others, how will others ever bloom? All the best, Mara
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Colleagues,
Yesterday I shared with you that Mara and I have a weekly meeting. Here’s what works:
This meeting is rarely longer than one hour, yet it focuses our work for the week. It easily saves each of us an hour, boosts creativity, and improves what we share with others. Yes, work is crazy busy, but clinging to a story that we are too busy to meet as leaders is just that – a story. Today I am laying down a challenge to do one of three things:
I often ask you for feedback, but today I implore you! Just hit one of those links and type the answer! If you value these emails, please just respond today. It is important. Cheers! Frederick Colleagues,
For the past year Strategic Leadership Consulting has been a two person operation with me doing all of the content development and Mara working on scheduling the email, updating the website, and keeping me on track. About four months ago we reevaluated our goals and how we have been working. Mara became the Inclusion Strategist and has taken over 90% of the social media posting. She is also tasked with developing and implementing strategies to meet the needs of younger and inexperienced leaders and to help what we do to be relevant to people from many backgrounds. She is also working on finding her own voice and developing her own content. As part of this redesign we developed a weekly check-in meeting and a shared agenda. The agenda is simply a Google doc table with a couple columns. We add rows to add new tsks. Old tasks get greyed out and active tasks are always at the top. For every task there is a deadline and a person responsible. We meet weekly to make sure we are on the same page, to troubleshoot, and to plan for the future. This week, we are adding 20 minutes at the front end to do professional development around our book study. Tomorrow I’ll share with you what is working, but today please reflect:
Cheers! Frederick Colleagues,
Last Tuesday I wrote about the importance of context in our leadership. I concluded by asking you to think about what makes your context unique. Today, I’ll ask you to revisit the importance of place.
Does place manifest itself in your work? If not, should it? Cheers! Frederick Colleagues, Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he [she, they] grows up. -Pablo Picasso What does this have to do with leadership?
Please take two (two!) minutes out of your day to think about this. Just stop racing headlong into the breach. TWO minutes! Close your eyes and sit with this question: What does connecting to our own inner child-artist have to do with leadership? Just listen for the answer. Feel free to share if you hear something profound, email me here. Cheers! Frederick |
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