Coaching

Today was mostly about coaching. Met my coach today and three of us took turns being video taped and role playing various situations, then being led by the coach in our debrief. Outstanding stuff.

Earlier in the day we did a bridge building exercise. We were split into four teams and had to build this bridge with a coach watching us behind a two-way mirror. No exercise is straightforward here, so part way through they took our "engineer" and sent him to another group, changed the specs, took building equipment away, and shortened the timetable. When it was all done, our bridge held up the best and we won. But I wasn't that happy. It's ugly. Look at it. Who wants a bridge like that in their town.

The exercises have been very insightful. One of the most important parts is the debrief and learning how to give feedback to each other regarding behaviors we saw in the exercises. The interesting thing is how much we get into these things, even though their outcome makes no difference to our lives. And every one of us gets into it and experience stresses from it.

Tough Conversations

The last two days have been incredible. Yesterday I read two assessments of my leadership completed by Five Board members and six staff members. It was great feedback that will help me immensely in putting together my developmental plan, our last assignment at the end of the week.

Something hit me like never before: Those difficult but critical conversations that sometimes we have to have are best in the context of a strong relationship. One of the assessments had open ended questions for my raters. Their encouraging words made we want to know what I need to improve and made me want to do whatever possible to be a better leader. Quite simply, I felt respected and loved.

As I reflected on that it hit me that if I want to confidently walk into a crucial conversation with someone, it's so much easier and the prospects of success are so much higher when I know they know I care about them and respect them. But if I think they're not sure, I feel very skittish. One of my tasks as a leader is to help my team and other staff to know that I care about them personally, what I respect and admire in their lives and leadership, that I care about their personal development, etc. When I don't have that assurance, it's not an excuse for avoiding some tough conversations, but it helps me understand one of my leadership tasks better.

I think that was my biggest take-aways from yesterday. Now for an accountable plan to improve! Fortunately, that's all a part of this experience and beyond.