The more I learn about leadership, and talk with others about it, the more I understand how different my relationship with its practice.
Son of a preacher-man and nurse-woman
Growing up, I experienced leadership practices outside of the 90’s corporate, command-and-control archetypes.
My father was an associate pastor and youth pastor of an Advent Christian Church—a Protestant denomination, predominately found on the east coast of the United States.
My mother, a multi-disciplinary nurse covering the breadth of departments: emergency, community care, community outreach, and intensive care.
I learned, early, about service to community through what we do and how we support others. From the physical to the spiritual, I learned leadership through their own community leadership.
Being the first person to start a buffet
As the son of a preacher-man, sometimes I would tag along while he married people. Either I didn’t have anything planned anywhere, or it just worked easier that way. After going to more than a few, you see patterns start to show.
Notably: no one likes to be first at a buffet.
It happened more than once that my dad would stand up after a while, start the buffet line. Then, more people would quickly join—even thanking him, confessing their anxiety of intiative.
Pushed off a cliff into a frenzy
Fun word fact: a frenzy—or shiver, school, or herd—is the collective noun for sharks!
That’s how I describe when I became a manager of managers. It’s also when I took diving into books on leadership, cross-cultural communication, process development, localization, etc.
The challenges stepping into a leadership position are very different and little can compare to the chaos. It does help though, not to step into a position to execute a large organizational change where no change was managed. Or, when your leadership partner is away half the year so it falls on you. Or, when the collective group has 5–20+ years professional experience more than you. Or, when the organizational change & design actually doesn’t make sense yet you still have to try and make things work with what you’ve got.
It was my formative leadership moment.
Collaboration and coalition
If there’s any two words that sum up my leadership philosophy, its these:
- Collaboration: The act of working together; united labor
Originated 1855–60 from French collaboration, from Late Latin collaboratus + French -ion, from Latin con- ("with") + labōrō ("work").1 - Coalition: Voluntary union of individual persons, parties, or states; particularly, a temporary combining of parties or factions for the attainment of a special end
French, from Medieval Latin coalitiō, coalitiōn-, from Latin coalitus, past participle of coalēscere, to grow together; see coalesce. 2
It’s about working together.
It’s about working well together.
Purposefully; towards something better.