Blog

In partnership with the International Leadership Association, LLC is excited to present this webinar.

November 15, 2016

11:00am-12:00 pm Pacific | 2:00 pm Eastern

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In the past few days, I have been a part of conversations with groups who are working to address racial injustices both locally and nationally. Interestingly regardless of scale, one of the recurring themes heard during these meetings centered on the tension between a network mindset and an organizational mindset. These groups are not the only ones talking about this; I’ve heard many different conversations embark on these same around partnership in the leadership development field.

I personally find that it’s helpful to identify these tensions to make informed decisions that truly align with our stated intent and values. However, this tension seems to come up in the most unexpected ways, so here is a short cheat sheet to help you know when you might be in the middle of one these conversations and decision points.

Here are some of the things you might start to hear in the room:

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I enjoy doing leadership development evaluation and getting into the nitty gritty of how program staff think about and implement their leadership development efforts. Some of the most important work of evaluations happens upfront and it’s work that programs would benefit from doing themselves. In the spirit of our former board chair, Eugene Kim (Faster than 20), I found myself thinking about how to share some of what we are learning more broadly to give programs a leg up in clarifying program goals, design and expected change. I am not suggesting that it’s not useful to have an outside perspective and new eyes on the program, but let’s face it, a lot of programs don’t have the resources for external evaluations. So for the DIY folks here are a few ideas:

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In other posts on leadership where I mentioned love, I quickly offer the disclaimer that I am not talking about the ‘romantic kind of love.’ Well, today is different. On Sunday, July 24^th, I married the love of my life after twenty-five years of being mostly single so I have had ample opportunity to think about love and this rather momentous occasion. And yes, not everything has to be about leadership but I couldn’t quite help myself.

A couple of weeks before the wedding a friend and former board member asked why we decided to get married instead of just continuing on as a solidly committed couple. I appreciated the opportunity for reflection, one that brought me back to a leadership value that is fundamental to the way I think about leadership and life, interdependence. We chose the ritual of marriage as a way to celebrate not only our union but the union of our communities as we brought people from all strands and times in our lives together as a full reflection and celebration of who we are as individuals, who we are together as a couple and who we are in community. I was so happy to be surrounded by people who brought us to this moment with their encouragement and support and who will carry us forward. We are capable of so much more together than alone. And it was a beautiful and sweet celebration of love. Love was in the air, in an infectious way that is kindled by weddings. One person hugged me and thanked me for the chance to step away for a moment from all that is hard in the world right now and to be lifted up by love. 

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