The second day of the MN Council for Non-Profits Annual Conference offered two really great workshops on leadership development. One workshop in particular has been on my mind this past week as I prepare for my October monthly report.
A workshop with Christine Hammes from MAP for Non-Profits, Lea Goldstein Moses from the Improve Group, Gwen Cannon from the Metro Regional Arts Council covered many of the concepts I have encountered so far throughout my Bush Fellowship and leadership seminars: Understanding that self-change precedes community change; Building a tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty; Cultivating patience and flexibility; Discerning between technical versus adaptive challenges; and Self-Care and Reflection.
I’ve been struggling with this last aspect: Self-Care and Reflection. The true necessity of reflection really came across in this workshop. Christine shared a quote with us:
Freedom is the ability to pause between stimulus and response, and in that pause…choose. – Rollo May
"Plant yourself" Photo: Michelle Vigen
“To pause” seems like such a luxury these days as everything moves and changes so quickly. But it is all that more important. Change is an opportunity to grow, but growth needs a foundation, and without reflection, the experience slips under you and you have nothing to plant your growth.
One of the first “wonderful” challenges of the fellowship is absorbing a significant change in your life, responsibilities, time management, and expectations. In addition to the fellowship, I’ve had more responsibilities and commitments than normal in my work and personal life this last month than I normally do.
As I came away from the MCN Conference, I could feel a huge exhale. Without something immediately ahead of me, I am able to pause and sit outside in the mornings, take a walk, and take note of the number of people I’ve really connected with, the ideas I’ve been holding in storage, and how I have felt throughout the last month. This week I am back in the CERTs office (though not as much as I’d like), which I have always identified (and mores lately) as my support network, and there I am able to bring all my learning artifacts to the table and look at them plainly, evaluate their relevancy, question and critique, and receive impressions and feedback from my colleagues.
View from the balcony - Photo: Michelle Vigen
“To pause” means building a habit of self-awareness and the chance to “get on the balcony” and see what’s really going on. It means listening without reacting, and giving empathetic consideration to situations.
“To pause” means making decisions fully present and being intentional in one’s actions and words.
I look at today’s public decision-makers, individuals in places of authority which we hope also exhibit strong leadership. These individuals carry enormous responsibility. We’re asking them (really more than our non-profit sector and ourselves) to initiate, plan, and carry out the change we desire. Do they take the time to take stock of the work being done? Whether they’ve actually chosen in their decision-making or just reacted?
How often have we wanted the chance to press pause and get a handle on what’s going on around us? To rest? To take the time to be thoughtful about our actions and our direction?
I have been given the unique opportunity with this fellowship to pause and choose what kind of person I want to become in the future. Most of all, I’d like to be considered thoughtful, open, a good listener, clear communicator, and someone who does take that pause and uses it wisely to choose, rather than react.
Only then, I might be able to bring the kind of intention that model leaders in my life bring to their work and position.
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