Ginny Wilson-Peters’ Blog

“Wow, that must be an intense email you’re in the middle of.”   I was sitting on the couch and my husband Greg was watching me on my Blackberry.  But I wasn’t on email, I was in the midst of a newly found addiction, the game of BrickBreaker.  BrickBreaker is a simple, yet challenging game where you move a ball around the screen to break bricks.  The version on my Blackberry has 34 “levels”.  The highest I’ve made it so far is to the nineteenth level. 

As I was entering my high score I had a realization:  that high score came after a great deal of practice.  I certainly hadn’t scored high the first few times I played the game.  In fact, the high score came after a few hours of practicing and a fair amount of frustration.  And even as I entered the high score, I found myself ready to get back in the game and play again and again.  It was fun, and I was getting better—and I like to win. 

The leadership learning from my BrickBreaker experience is not lost on me.  Developing mastery in any area of our life requires practice, and the ideal is to be able to practice doing something we’re passionate about and where we have natural talent. 

Daniel Levitin in This is Your Brain on Music talks about the theory of 10,000 hours:… ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is the equivalent to roughly three hours per day, or twenty hours per week, of practice over ten years. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people don’t seem to get anywhere when they practice, and why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others. But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.

A discussion of mastery isn’t complete without talking about using our strengths to practice in arenas where we are passionate.    Teaching is a passion for me, and one for which I’ve been blessed with some natural talent.  In the Spring of 2008 I had the pleasure of teaching two MBA Leadership classes simultanesouly.  In addition to the other work I was doing through Integrity Integrated Inc I spent one month teaching one class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6-10 PM and the second class on the weekends (Friday nights from 6-9:30 and Saturdays from 8:30-3:30).  In total there were 89 students which meant in addition to the hours in the classroom I was grading a large volume of reflective paper assignments. 

 Sound exhausting?  Not for me.  I can honestly say that at the end of the weekend, I was often as much, if not more, energized than when I started the week.  I’m not sure where I stand relative to my 10,000 hours of teaching but I can say that I was operating solidly out of a passionate strength and that goes a long way towards personal mastery. 

 My MBA teaching experience meets all of the criteria for Strengths-based Activities, as defined in “Go Put your Strengths to Work” by Marcus Buckingham. 

 What does operating out of a strength feel like?

• When you do it, you feel EFFECTIVE.
• Before you do it, you actively LOOK FORWARD to it.
• While you are doing it, you feel INQUISITIVE and FOCUSED.
• After you’ve done it, you feel FULFILLED and AUTHENTIC.   

I don’t plan to spend the necessary hours to develop mastery in Brickbreaker—which means I may never make it to the 34^th level…but teaching, now that is a different story. 

 
For more about mastery, success and working with strengths, I recommend all of the following books:

 “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Galdwell
 “Strengthfinders 2.0” by Tom Rath
“Strengths-Based Leadership” by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.  Margaret Mead

 It started as a Facebook posting and resulted in raising $10,500 (so far) for the American Heart Association Go Red for Women.   Last spring I agreed to chair the Circle of Red committee for this November’s Go Red luncheon.  The Circle of Red is comprised of women who contribute $500 or more to Go Red.  This was actually my first involvement with the luncheon but I was drawn to the cause.

Sometime around April or May I posted a note on my Facebook page and asked for volunteers for the committee.  I was pleasantly surprised when six women I know stepped quickly forward and expressed an interest.  Some of the women had personal histories with heart disease; others were concerned about family histories or had lost women they loved to heart disease. 

Author Margaret Wheatley says “a leader is anyone who is willing to help.”  The Circle of Red committee took this to heart.  They also expanded the definition to remind us that leadership is also about getting results.  They are doing this through passion, vision and the use of effective storytelling.

 PASSION:  This is the first year the Go Red luncheon has created a Circle of Red in our Quad City community so our challenge was to generate interest and raise at least $10,000.  Our planning meetings at the Waterfront Deli were fun and energizing and it was clear to me that I had the privilege of working with a very passionate and committed group of women.  But I BLOWN away about three months into the process when each member of our committee stepped forth in a meeting and made their own personal commitment to become members of the Circle of Red.  I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as each of them talked about their commitment and reasons for doing so.  These are not a group of women that you’ll find on the list of regular donors in the Quad Cities.  They probably aren’t women you’d expect to be writing $500 checks, especially in this economy.  But, these ARE women with passion and commitment and I am honored to call them friends. 

 STORYTELLING:  At our Circle of Red promotional event in September, two women shared their stories.  Both women, Kelly Hennell and Tina Morris shared their own personal stories of heart disease.   As I looked around the room, and chatted with women afterwards, it was clear that their stories touched the hearts of many women present.  Those stories also reinforced my personal commitment.  I Go Red for Women because I want us to move from saying, ‘I wish I had known’ to saying, ‘thank goodness I knew about the risks of heart disease.’  

 VISION:  We had two major goals.  One goal was to raise at least $10,000 this year.  Our second goal was to create a compelling reason for women to want to join the Circle of Red (beyond the joy of financial giving).  Thanks to the leadership of our committee, more women have stepped forward to join the Circle of Red and we have surpassed our (initial) goal of 20 women committing $500.  And we’ve created ongoing opportunities for women in the Circle of Red to come together and continue to learn more about heart disease.  You can find that list of activities at the end of this blog.

“Vision without action is a dream.  Action without vision is simply passing time.  Action with vision is making a positive difference.  Joel Barker

A healthy and heartful thank you to our Circle of Red committee members:  Amy Pousson, Carol Cowan, Chelsea Hillman,  LuAnn Haydon, Kristen Veto and Teri Behrends.

Circle of Red members in the Quad Cities receive the following benefits with their $500 donation:

*One Seat at the Go Red For Women® Luncheon, November 18^th at The Waterfront Convention Center and special recognition at the event
* Limited edition Circle of Red Bagolita clutch purse
* Invitation to an intimate breakfast with local cardiologist, Dr. Rafat Padaria, to answer your questions about heart disease
* Tour of the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital led by Dr. Vicki Pyevich, a hands-on opportunity for Circle of Red women to see where a portion of the American Heart Association’s research dollars are making a big impact.

The cost for the above activities are underwritten by others and do NOT come out of your $500 contribution.   

Even if you’re not able to make a Circle of Red contribution, I hope you’ll attend an upcoming Circle of Red event. 

Quad Cities: Wednesday November 18^th at the Waterfront Convention Center http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3068146

 Cedar Rapids:  Friday November 20^th at Kirkwood Center for Continuing Education http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3067947

Johnson County: Thursday December 19^th at Coralville Marriott Hotel  http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3065965