Tag: vision

A View from My Window

There’s a world out there. Open a window, and it’s there.

Robin Williams

It’s May 2020 and unless you have been sleeping under a rock, you know that the world is in the midst of a pandemic that has people both fearful and excited, working from home and working harder than ever, confused.  I told myself I wasn’t going to write about this situation.  There are literally hundreds of articles about crisis management, leading during change, and working with new technologies.  But, I can write about what I know…. I know people and I know leadership.

A few weeks into the stay at home measures, a friend of mine suggested I take a look at a Facebook group called A View from My Window.  The entire social media content consists of pictures taken by people of their current views.  I’ve seen photos of Greek islands, Italian villas, and seaports in Croatia.  My scrolling has given me a view of Texas thunderstorms, tornadoes over the Great Plains, and even hospital rooms from the office of essential medical personnel  It’s been pure enjoyment and respite from the conflicting news reports and confusing data otherwise streaming in the media.

Some of the most interesting pictures are those that focus on a single subject – a beautiful red flower or a solitary tree in a field.  I’ve been thinking about the view from my leadership window.  Do I see the beauty in the individual or am I only looking at the wider angle?  We are called upon to be visionary leaders; however, sometimes the vision can block our view.  Vision is important to leadership, but a focus on the individual is critical to leading.

Do you see the team member whose home feels more like a prison than a workplace?  How about the office clown who is missing his audience?  A team is only as good as its players and players need a coach, especially when our plans have been altered and purpose obstructed.  There are a few things you can do to make sure your view is as clear as your vision.

Look Up – Look up from the reports, budgets and market analysis necessary to organizational success to invest in success of the human capital in front of you.

Look Deep – Look close at the players on your team and see them as individuals not only participants in a greater game.

Look Inside – Look inside and be clear about what you see.  Both vision and view must begin within the leader.

Take a look … what’s the view outside your window?

Reflections on Becoming Dr. Karavedas – No. 9

It’s been an incredibly busy six months. My days and weeks have been filled with reading, writing and more reading, more writing. But, I’ve also finished all my coursework, written the first three chapters of my dissertation, defended my study proposal, passed both quality review and IRB, secured and confirmed several interviews for my research, and will conduct my first interviews next week. I have to tell you, it’s exhilarating!

I’m not a doctor yet, but I am well on my way.

Most days I march forward and approach each aspect of this doctoral journey with eager anticipation, but I freely admit there are other days I am scared to death. During the days full of fear, I ask myself “what am I afraid of; who am I afraid of.” The truth is I’m afraid of a lot of things. I am afraid I won’t be able to gather the data, people won’t want to be interviewed, I won’t interview well, I won’t get the data I need, I’ll write a bad dissertation, won’t finish on time, and I won’t graduate. My greatest fear…that I will spend my time and money on earning a degree that I wouldn’t be able to use – it will all be wasted.

Brene’ Brown (one of my favorite authors) writes “daring greatly is being brave and afraid every minute of the day at the exact same time.” To be great, we must dare greatly. Greatness doesn’t happen without facing the mountain and climbing it. On this doctoral journey, I see my doubts and fears, but I don’t let them stop me. I don’t let the voices of others – or the ones inside my head – stop me. Each day, I commit to doing one thing that moves me toward my goal – one more thing each day. Step by step, the dream WILL become reality. In the words of another one of my favorite authors, Jo Saxton,

“I’m just a girl who decided to go for it!”

 

Books I Recommend:
Daring Greatly by Brene’ Brown
The Dream of You by Jo Saxton

Reflections on Becoming Dr. Karavedas – No. 7

The doctoral program through the School of Education at Brandman University provides a great combination of convenient online class access plus the support of a cohort group to travel this journey with you. My cohort is made up of six women –

yes, by some crazy coincidence, we’re all women on the road to becoming doctors.

This diverse mix of women of various ages and stages has come together to learn, grow, and support one another. For the most part, this cohort has been a positive experience. We have our own personalities, but we’ve handled these differences and made it work.   A recent team project, however, exposed a struggle within the group that may never be resolved.

Patrick Lencioni wrote a book called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. If you work with or lead others, this book is indispensible. Lencioni describes five areas that prevent teams from being successful –

  • Absence of Trust
  • Fear of Conflict
  • Lack of Commitment
  • Avoidance of Accountability
  • Inattention to Results

Our team project revealed that after more than a year in this doctoral program together, our cohort is still dysfunctional. A result was achieved, be we struggled hard to get there. I could clearly identify four out of the five of Lencioni’s team dysfunctions within our cohort. We lack trust, we avoid accountability, we fear conflict, and we did not provide enough attention to the results.

It is evident that this previously high functioning team still has plenty of work to do. It is also clear that without attention, things can fall apart quickly.

Competition reveals the true characteristics of a team.

The truth is, we are six leaders thrown together and told to excel. We choose how excellence will look. There must be agreement on this vision of excellence, as well as the necessary steps to achieve it. Different standards are revealed when the stakes are higher.

How do we change? After all, this is a transformational leadership program. We should be a team of leaders that excel at leading. Transformation begins within – with the leader. Each of us can be transformed through this program, but we must be open to this transformation. It will be interesting to see the direction of the cohort from this point forward. How will we address trust and conflict? What about accountability and results? Time will tell. I only know that if I am to become a transformational leader, I must transform myself.

 

This One’s For You Grammy!

Recently, I’ve been thinking about my grandmother quite a bit. Esther Tune was an amazing lady. She was a single parent who outlived two husbands. She worked in the medical field, although I can’t really tell you what she did. I do know she spent a year serving on the hospital ship USS Hope in Jamaica. She traveled as often as she could – either by herself or with others. For most of my life, Esther – or Grammy as she was known to literally everyone – drove a bright orange Karmen Ghia with a big stuffed tiger sitting in the backseat. That’s who she was – a tiger, but a soft one. Grammy passed away several years ago, a month before her 102nd birthday.

When Grammy spoke, we all listened. Grammy was wise. Whatever she said was worth hearing. She wasn’t one to tell you what you wanted to hear, but she would certainly tell you what you needed to hear. Grammy believed in the people around her and, because of her, they believed in themselves. She knew how to motivate people toward success. I can’t wasn’t in her vocabulary.

But what does all this have to do with leadership? Grammy wasn’t college educated. She wasn’t a CEO or Manager of a multi-million dollar corporation. Yet, she was definitely the leader of our family. Grammy never led a corporation or a division or even a team. She led our family. And, we followed – willingly. We trusted this woman – her strength, her character, and her wisdom. Wherever she was going, we knew wanted to be there. The road might be rocky. But it would definitely be an adventure worth taking. And there would be growth at the end.

Good leaders know how to develop their followers into people beyond their own dreams. Grammy was authentic, inspirational, confident, and certainly visionary. These traits were passed along to her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. None that knew her were ever the same.

Grammy was born into a different era. She never had a chance to go to college or get her doctorate. Nor will she ever see me receive mine. Her presence is here though – every day. She inspires the leader I will become. This one’s for you Grammy!

#strongwomenraisestrongwomen

Reflections on Becoming Dr. Karavedas – No. 6

My first class to begin year two is a course in Creativity and Innovation. It’s my most difficult course so far. Make me read a book … or write a 25-page paper … or make a presentation … or all three. But, don’t give me an obscure idea and tell me to be creative. It’s killing me!

Truth is, we all need to be creative. The world in which we live and work is changing on a daily basis. Students sitting in classrooms today are being prepared for jobs that don’t even exist. In a recent Ted Talk, Sir Ken Robinson links imagination and creativity saying, “imagination is the source of creativity, but they are not the same thing.” Robinson defines imagination and creativity as follows:

IMAGINATION: The ability to step outside your current space, to bring to mind things that aren’t present to our senses.

CREATIVITY:  Creativity is putting your imagination to work. It’s creating an idea from your imagination that has value.                                                                                                                                   (Robinson, 2011)

As a child, I had an imaginary friend named Jack Jones.  Jack Jones was a girl who lived in a purple house. My mom even set an extra plate at the table for Jack Jones. Somewhere along the way, Jack Jones faded into the back of my mind, and I determined that following the rules was the road to success. In 2017, the rules have changed. Pushing the envelope is expected. Thinking outside of the box is admired.

So, I embrace this course of study. I dedicate myself to becoming more creative – to exploring new ideas and thoughts. It’s time to get out of the box and see the world around me. I will find my Jack Jones again.

My office now has an idea board. I review Pinterest daily. I am trying to read about and surround myself with creative people. Most importantly, I am doing my best to move away from the screen and use my fingers for a more creative purpose.

My imagination is working already. I think I see a purple house.

I Can See Clearly Now

I am a woman of a certain age – an age that requires glasses for close work.  It’s interesting to realize you need a little assistance with something you’ve been doing quite well for years.  Humbling, yes.  Essential, also yes. Fortunately, I have accepted the fact that I’d rather see than not see and now own several pairs of very stylish eyewear.

The information about my eyesight is pertinent to another recent revelation.  I found that when I put on my glasses and look in the mirror, I am able to see my flaws much more clearly.  There they are – big as life itself.  Once I recovered from the shock of seeing myself much more clearly, I immediately thought, “how long has that been there?”  The imperfections I see so clearly may have been evident to others for quite some time.

As leaders, we can be blind to our leadership flaws because our eyesight has grown tired over the years.  We no longer see as sharply as we once had.  We can grow complacent within the daily routine.  We aren’t doing anything wrong, but we aren’t doing a lot of things right either.  We spend a little more time in our offices than we should.  Our conversations are a little less constructive than they once were.  And, most important, we haven’t invested the time developing those followers as we once did.  We aren’t seeing clearly.

Our leadership glasses sharpen our vision and bring the picture into focus. Look closely now.  You may see opportunities to…

  • Motivate your team to hang in there with a difficult project
  • Encourage a junior employee to step forward into leadership
  • Collaborate with others to find new ways to be innovative
  • Inspire your team to move from mediocrity to greatness

Put on your leadership glasses and take a closer look.  What do you see?

Executive Function for Executives

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about the concept of executive function as a means of helping students achieve more in school. Executive function is the idea that students can be taught to handle the daily tasks needed to be successful in school – paying attention, organizing work, planning for the future, controlling impulses, etc. Training students in methods designed to assist with executing the functions of school will provide opportunities for their minds to learn, understand and demonstrate competency in the academic concepts being taught.   Executive function employs activities to train the brain, which benefit students regardless of academic ability or level. Is there an executive function to leadership?

Leadership development typically prefers to focus on areas of inspiration, vision, collaboration, team building, and all the topics that make us feel great about leading. Every leader understands, however, there are many other areas of leadership that – while absolutely necessary – may not be quite as exciting.

It isn’t enough to cast the vision; leaders must lead the work to achieve it.

Leadership requires sustained attention to details, self-monitoring and awareness, flexibility to move from one idea to another, and the ability to organize and plan well. These executive functions are absolutely required for successful leadership. The behind-the-scenes hard work necessary to achieve success is not always evident to those we are developing to lead with us. As leaders, it is our responsibility to teach others all the skills necessary for successful leadership. To do less will only create frustrated leaders who have a vision and desire to lead well, but have not developed the skills to take themselves there.

Excellence is a habit (Aristotle)

Let us develop habits of excellence in those we lead. Excellence in all areas of leadership.

Find Strength in Vulnerability

I sat in the audience listening to the keynote speaker. He was a former leader of a multi-billion dollar company – an author, speaker, and leadership consultant. I should have been engaged in learning from this expert. Instead, I was focused on his somewhat tedious delivery. He had a lot of great things to say, but he hadn’t grabbed my interest long enough to make me listen. Then he said something that changed everything.

In the middle of some point on leadership, he just stopped, stared at the audience, and said, “I have a confession to make. I’ve only been doing this four months. I just left my extremely high-paying job to do this – deliver keynote talks. I’m scared to death.”

It was honest. It was vulnerable. And, it grabbed my interest. I listened closely to all he said for the next 45 minutes.

Authentic vulnerability is extremely desirable and extremely difficult. It’s risky and frightening.  Personally, it has been the most difficult thing I’ve had to learn along my leadership journey.  But, leaders who understand vulnerability, lead teams who are willing to risk anything for them.

Leadership vulnerability creates a safe place for people to risk, create, and dream.

When leaders are vulnerable, their followers are secure in the knowledge that perfection is not the expectation; willingness to try is the expectation.  Vulnerability makes you human, but it must be exercised carefully.

It isn’t… ”I have no idea what I’m doing on this project.”   It is… ”Although I have expertise in curriculum development, I need to lean on your input for assessment.”

It isn’t…  ”Your job and mine are on the line unless we make our numbers.” It is…  ”We had a tough first quarter, and we need to pull together to achieve better results. Fortunately, we have a great team and I know we can do this. Where should we start?”

Vulnerable leaders inspire dedicated followers. Draw in a big breath and be honest with your team. Their strength will develop within your weakness.