Ginny Wilson-Peters' Blog

It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint December 14, 2011

Leadership is a journey, not a destination
It is a marathon, not a sprint.
It is a process, not an outcome.

John Donahoe, president of eBay

A number of years ago I went on a 4 day white water rafting trip on the Green River in Utah.  The route was mostly level 2 and 3 rapids with an occasional level 4.  There were three rafts in our group.  I remember getting to our raft and looking at our guide—a young man who was just eighteen years old.  My mind went to judgment and my body went to fear about his potential inexperience.  Then I asked him how long he had been rafting and how he approached things.  His answer sealed the deal for me.  “I’ve been rafting on this river since I was 14 years old.  But every time I come to this river I always assume it will be different than any time before.  The river can change in an instant—and I don’t take anything for granted.”

Alrighty then, we’re going to be just fine—and we were.

But that trip is such a reminder for me that leadership is an ongoing journey—and one that can change in an instant.  And unlike the rafting trip, where we are encouraged to travel light, our leadership journey is one in which we often bring years of experience (and bad habits along with us).

Last week I heard an energizing and inspiring presentation by Chad Pregracke, Founder and President of Living Lands and Water.  While Chad had many great things to say about his journey, three things stood out for me.  First, he talked about approaching a local company to sponsor him and he asked for a large sum of money (a sum that many people would say he was crazy to ask for).  His comment, “I didn’t set out with small intentions.”

Second, Chad said that if you set out to do good things, then good things will happen to you.

And finally, Chad said he read somewhere that the earth wasn’t destroyed all at one, but piece by piece.  “And so that is how it needs to be cleaned up” one day at a time.

Those same lessons apply to our leadership journey, as was evidenced by the fact that the same day I heard Chad speak I had an email from a coaching client who is working to redirect some of her leadership efforts and overcome bad habits.  She said, “I’m working on the things we talked about.  It’s hard to change fifty-something years of bad habits…but I’m starting.”

And that is all that we can ask.  If you follow Chad’s advice, you can start something with big goals, but also recognize that you’re going to achieve those one day at a time.   And remember, that leadership development really is a marathon, not a sprint!

There are Many Communities… September 22, 2011

A wise Ojibwa Indian elder once told me that “There are many communities out there for us.  We just have to go out and find them.”  He is indeed so very right.

I sit on the airplane flying home after almost two weeks working in Europe.  As often happens when I travel for work, I find myself feeling excitement to be home and also a sadness of having left new “friends” behind.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I love my work.  I get up almost every day and have the chance to teach, coach, and most importantly perhaps, continue my own learning journey.

This was a trip of leadership training for a client.  There was a four day course in England and then the following week a two day course in Germany.  In both courses, they were participants from different countries.  The first week we had a wonderful mix of English, German and French.  The second week was German and English.

I wish that I could say that I speak the languages, but I don’t.  I did however do my best to learn a few key words in German and also study some things about the cultures in the UK and Germany.  It is always important to me when I travel to a foreign country to be as respectful as possible of the local cultures, even if I don’t speak the language fluently.

One of my biggest lessons came the first week.  All of the participants spoke English, some better than others.  I tried my best to be aware of the words and phrases I used in my examples and Power Point slides.  I also looked for those times when I got the glazed over looks from some of the participants.  Gradually though, by midway through the third day of training, I noticed that people were more vocal and asking me to explain a word or phrase.  I realized how very much I appreciated them doing that.

And then it hit me that I hadn’t actually ASKED them the very first day to please feel free and ask.  I guess I just assumed that would happen.  But I learned that isn’t the nature of many of the people who were in the course.  It left me wondering how many times the first couple days I left them wondering “what the heck is she talking about.”

The good news is that I took my new found learning to heart.  The very first day of the second week of training I asked the new group of people to please feel free and ask me about anything they heard and didn’t understand.  And I’m thrilled to say they were very receptive and did indeed do so.

Days away from home:  12.

Hotels:  5.

International flights: 3.

Learning: Priceless. 

Thank you to all of my new friends in the UK, Germany and France.  A special thanks also to Alexandra and her husband Thorsten who spent a wonderful day introducing me to the Old Town of Heidelberg.

Time to start Living my Passion June 7, 2011

In teaching we learn…and in learning we teach.  With his permission to share, following is a portion of a reflective paper written by a student in my UIowa MBA Leadership and Personal Development class.

I’m really intrigued by the concept of working towards becoming an Ideal Self. The idea interested me in our initial class discussions, but it became even more interesting during our class when we performed the “where-will-we-be-in-ten-years” visioning exercise. I closed my eyes, sat back in my chair, and I started to see my ideal future take shape before me. The family life was happy, content—similar to today only evolved ten years. What about the work portion of my vision? It was great too, but it was very different from what I do now.

I have a passion for both creativity and empowering people to think of unique solutions to problems. I have a passion for helping others learn how to help themselves. One of the problems with Corporate America as a whole is that we’ve become so process driven, we’ve taken some of the creativity and individuality out of jobs. As soon as leaders start treating people as ends to means instead of actual human beings, people become dehumanized and demoralized. Ironically, if we take away a person’s ability to think and be creative, our processes will never improve. The processes and the people will eventually stagnate and then deteriorate. Bill George made a comment in the podcast we listened to about most people won’t buy into a mission that says, “increase the share price.” I certainly attest to that. (reference www.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1697)

I realized I like to do good and help others do good in the world. I don’t know when it happened, but I stopped being motivated by money some time ago. I now want to be in environments where I can help others succeed and grow. Don’t get me wrong, if earning money becomes a natural by-product of where my passion takes me, I won’t complain, but I keep thinking about the story Ginny told the first night of class about the charitable woman she met in South Africa. To me, this woman seemed fully satisfied. When that woman looks back on her life, she’ll know she made a difference. She won’t think, “If only we could have increased production capacity by 6%.” No one looks back on their life and wishes they had earned a few more paychecks. People look back on the relationships they’ve formed and the impact they’ve made.

I really liked what Dave Green, (CEO of the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center) said at the end of his presentation. He encouraged us all to get involved in our communities. This made me think about why I don’t volunteer more. At this point, I’ve stuck to helping people I know. Why don’t I give more time to the community? Then I learned something about myself: I want to help. I want to get involved, but on the nights I have free time, I’ll distract myself with something “easy” like a movie or a book instead of helping others. I’m always disappointed in myself when a night goes by where I didn’t accomplish anything. What I’ve noticed in the last few weeks is that if I don’t act on my passions, I start to get pouty and irritable. I’ll start to justify any lazy or procrastinating activities by saying, “it’s good to watch six hours of TV in a night. I needed to unwind.” Does that sound familiar? I’ll commit an act of self-betrayal—I’ll tell myself that I’m going to find volunteer opportunities, but then out of some fear of not being able to help strangers, I don’t.

Here’s what I need to work on the most: Executing my Passions. That sentence can be read in one of two ways, but I assure you I don’t plan to kill my passions once and for all.  Instead, I need to start living them, being more active with them, and lead with them.

In my feedback interviews I was told I have, “a unique mind,” yet at work, any unique idea I have needs to go through two or three bureaucratic channels before being tested, let alone reviewed and implemented. That kills my creativity. I like to have passion for what I do. I like to know my energies are being put towards something I love. I want to know my work is appreciated. I want to start small—volunteering outside of work—to see what is out there. Who knows, maybe I’ll build the right network, learn the right skills, and start my own charitable group someday?

If that happens, my life will be much closer to my ten-year vision. What I saw when I closed my eyes was a man who woke up early, went for a jog before work (which means I must not be going to work at 6:00am anymore), had cereal with the kids, kissed the wife goodbye, and then went into the world to make it a better place. This man used his sense of humor and his ability to connect with people not for his own personal, financial gain. Rather he used it to help unlock other people’s creativity and spread joy throughout the world. Similar to the “multiplier effect” we attributed to good leaders in class, the man in my vision helped multiply his own joy for the world through others. It was a satisfying vision and hopefully if I learn how I spend my time, build a network of volunteer-oriented individuals, and keep my mind, soul, and body sharp, I can become that man.