In retrospect...

I've been taking a leadership development course for three months. I'm not new to leadership training. In fact, I was the student leadership club co-advisor a few years ago. So many of the theories aren't necessarily new to me.

However I am finding that my experiences in my work life and my personal life have given me a perspective that I have not had before. I am taking these lessons that I'm learning and putting them into real life action; difficulties and all. I mean, it's easy to be a leader when everyone does what you tell them to do. There's no work involved. But in the past few years, my leadership skills have been put to the test. Some people don't automatically trust me or my judgement because I haven't earned that trust through progressive interactions that would foster that trust. Sometimes there exists communication breakdowns that serve to put up barriers to trusting relationships. And sometimes, it could be external baggage that gets in the way.

In any case, I'm used to people trusting me. I am a person who walks in integrity. It is not often that I say one one thing and do something else. When it happens, it is more often than not a result of outside influences getting the way of me fulfilling my promises.

We were asked today to talk about what we have gained from the course. Two things have emerged for me. Being more purposeful and less judgemental in my interactions. And by judgemental, I don't necessarily mean, "I'm right and you're wrong". We learned about perceiving the phenomenon versus our story about the phenomenon today and it was eye opening for me.  We also talked about ethics, integrity, communication, personal values, work styles and other things that make each one of us the person we are.  These things shape who we are and how we perceive the world.  They can make use better communicators or the person who drains another person's soul.

We learned today that there is no text book approach to dealing with other people especially when we are coming from a position of leadership. Each situation requires a specific leadership style to guarantee a successful outcome.  Can each of us become what is needed to fill space, the missing piece that will move the group along? The answer doesn't really involve having a particular skill set. It involves more of our willingness to serve and to model the behaviors that successful leaders have been modeling for us. 

I said there were two things and I think I mentioned two things already. But there is a third aspect that I think each of us has felt and appreciated. There is comfort in being in a cohort group for an extended period of time with people who are outside your normal sphere of influence.  My cohort group consists of people from a variety of areas of the organization and though we bring a variety of experiences, we seem to find that our experiences, although different in setting, are similar in content. And as we're learning new nuggets of information, we seem to be collectively putting together the pieces to create what I hope becomes a mosiac for what a good leader looks like.

It's been great to be with this group. I previously worked with four of the people in my group and one other person I just recently started interacting with through committee work. But for the most part I didn't know anyone else beyond their name and where they work. After three months, we seem closer, more connected to each other and invested in each other's successes.