Leadership

I am interested in leadership. At every step of my post-collegiate professional life, I have led. Sometimes I have sought those roles, other times the role has been inherited without pursuit. I have never invested in anything long-term that did not evolve into leadership.

This makes me sound power-hungry - even to me! However, I am truly a servant-leader. I am the hardest working staff member. I work the longest hours. When I am not working, I am working - evaluating, assessing, planning. I work at home. I work while I drive. I take vacations in order to work in a way that I cannot WHILE at work.

I delight in encouraging and promoting people. I work with people, and I work for people. People work for me. In all three relationships, I garner the greatest benefit by pursuing others' success. This requires honest assessment, correction, & encouragement of myself and the other people involved. They are relationships though, and I have had many people that chose to not participate in a positive work relationship. I do not tolerate negativity, pettiness, or personal attack. I simply do not have to. I give multiple corrective interactions - documented. If no improvement is made, I sever the relationship.

Assessment is what I do: staff, projects, routines, systems. I get inside a situation, I learn how it operates, and I work to improve its functionality. I am efficient, excellent, honest, and caring - none of those attributes are mutually exclusive though in business they are often shaded to be.

I make decisions through research. I ask people who are in the know. I ask people who have opinions. Then I discern through the options and make the call. Then I implement. Then I assess. Then I adapt. Nothing is ever final.

I have almost no desire for prominence.  No, I do not want my 'ideas + time + effort' equation to be dishonestly assigned to someone else. However, I am uncomfortable when honored. It is all part of the daily grind of who I am. Work is what I do.

I do not care to be political. Ever. In any way. I do not want to garner support - it is manipulative. I do not want to rally against - it is subversive. I just want to get things done, respectfully & efficiently.

I have been awarded and promoted. I accept that as a function of my personal pursuit of excellence. People that care about making things more functional appreciate my way of working. There have been situations where I have met hostility and resistance. I understand that not all entities desire growth & development. Typically - they are failing organizations. Now that I reflect, every single place that I encountered institutional negativity has already failed and closed/ sold out to a competitor. Huh.

I am currently leading in a church setting. Suffice to say it is VERY different from a secular professional environment. It is just not as...'professional'. I find this very disheartening considering the word I would have rather replaced in that statement is 'secular'. I am exercising grace and patience though, and I am attempting to retain joy and hope that the environment will shift. I have been involved in positive organizational shifts before for far less important a vocation. Christ's church is certainly worth any value I can contribute.