EPICS GM Leadership Series Fall 2019 Part 2 of 2

Summary

In the second part of the EPICS GM Leadership Series from Fall 2019, the focus is on personal and community growth within leadership roles. The speaker, inspired by his own experiences, emphasizes the importance of defining personal goals and creating winnable games rather than imitating predecessors. He draws upon his journey from working at a camp to joining Habitat for Humanity, highlighting the transformational power of leveraging personal passion for societal impact. The discussion dives into community building efforts, leadership challenges during transitions, and the significance of candid conversations in fostering trust and effective leadership. Key insights include the value of diversity in teams and opportunities for volunteer engagement with Habitat for Humanity.

Highlights

• Overcoming the daunting shadow of a great predecessor by defining your own leadership journey. 🚀
• Stepping away from comfort zones to explore broader societal impact. 🌎
• Navigating the challenges of leadership transition by focusing on trust-building. 🔑
• Harnessing the power of candidness to address core issues and foster real change. 🎤
• Embracing diversity within teams to drive innovation and growth. 🌈
• Joining Habitat for Humanity to build not just houses but communities. 🏘️

Key Takeaways

• Define your leadership game on your own terms, not based on predecessors. 🎯
• Community impact is profound when personal passion aligns with societal needs. 🌍
• Building trust is essential before initiating changes as a leader. 🤝
• Having candid conversations can drive meaningful change and strengthen relationships. 🗣️
• Diversity in teams enhances creativity and success. 🌟
• Volunteering can transform communities and provide personal growth opportunities. 🙌

Overview

The event delved into the art of personal and professional growth within leadership, encouraging leaders to carve out their paths based on personal strengths and passions rather than merely emulating others. A poignant narrative was shared about transitioning from a comfortable role at a camp to taking on bigger social challenges through Habitat for Humanity.

Listeners were guided through the intricacies of building meaningful communities by participating actively in neighborhood transformations instead of just individual house projects. Through vivid storytelling, the speaker illustrated the significant impact of fostering genuine relationships and encouraging community members to contribute to shared goals.

The session wrapped up by discussing effective communication strategies, particularly the importance of candid and honest dialogues in leadership. It highlighted that while change is gradual, the cornerstone of successful leadership lies in trust, sincerity, and engagement, inspiring attendees to apply these principles to their own leadership journeys.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 10:00: Introduction and Leadership Challenges The chapter titled 'Introduction and Leadership Challenges' opens with an acknowledgment of feeling overwhelmed by the tasks at hand. It presents a scenario where an individual looks up to a leader named Mark, viewing him as a high standard to reach. However, it emphasizes that comparing oneself directly to Mark isn't practical or beneficial. Instead, it encourages self-reflection on what personally excites or inspires the individual about their situation and the impact they feel they can bring to the table. The focus shifts from emulating someone else's success to identifying personal motivations and contributions.
• 10:00 - 20:00: Candid Conversations and Trust The chapter emphasizes the importance of defining your own goals and creating a winnable game rather than adhering to traditional or externally imposed standards. It suggests that drive and determination originate from understanding one's personal objectives and skill sets. The conversation touches on navigating leadership and finding inspiration through self-defined success criteria.
• 20:00 - 25:00: Volunteering and Community Involvement The chapter discusses the importance and impact of volunteering and community involvement. It highlights how breaking away from traditional methods and embracing creativity can enhance program goals. The speaker reflects on their personal journey and experiences, comparing an initial tendency to mimic others with a later, more innovative approach. By valuing unique contributions and adapting strategies that align with program objectives, volunteers can achieve more meaningful outcomes.

EPICS GM Leadership Series Fall 2019 Part 2 of 2 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 so you might be in this situation where the the the task at hand is somewhat overwhelming oh I've got a what's your name I've got a I've got a mimic mark I look up to mark so much as a leader how can I possibly reach that the lofty heights of mark that's not a winnable game all right and so you've got to say what what fires me up about this situation what impact do I feel like I can have and and there that's where I
• 00:30 - 01:00 think that your drive and determination comes from define the game on your terms not on marks because he was this lofty leader before you right so create your own game and make it winnable and then I think drive and determination and the inspiration come from those things right and part of that is understanding what exactly are we trying to achieve here how do I feel like my skill set can can step into that place and create that winnable game we're talking about so for me if I was just doing the tradition
• 01:00 - 01:30 tradition tradition of the program I didn't like trying to mimic like the other guys who did the thing better than I did and so that's where the creativity and change came in right and not just for the sake of it but in a way that was going to help us achieve our program goals that makes sense and I guess I'd speak into so now I mentioned all of my stories so far as being cam to come sir and about two years ago I summers are
• 01:30 - 02:00 hard at camp to come so I mean you it's it's seven days a week most of the time three or four of those nights or til 11 12 1 o'clock in the morning I mean it's go go go and you have to make sacrifices from a family standpoint because you're just there you only thing you do really has come home to sleep but when you love it and you believe in it you do it right and you have these conversations with your family but about two years ago and you come out of summers beat up but then
• 02:00 - 02:30 I would always bounce back a few weeks later ah we can do this better right and about two years ago I noticed that it was taken more of a toll on me and it was weird because I I never thought I'd leave too and I started trying to understand why do I feel this way why am I having these feelings and again as a as a Christian I feel like God's involved in that in that process and so I felt like what we did a camp was transformational for a lot of
• 02:30 - 03:00 reasons for a lot of lives and I felt like if there were more places in society more people in society to have these kind of goals that it would be a game-changer and what I feel like we did best at camp was meeting people whether at acceptance right and valuing people and then getting them connected and I felt like if you have value and you have connection in your life that's a game changer would you agree if you have people that
• 03:00 - 03:30 are around you that care about you support you and want you to be successful in life in the same way that you want it for them that's a game changer I think and in society I feel like there are a lot of hurting lonely people that need people to walk with them and help them through life and and so as I was examining why was my drive in my determination for camp not the same as it used to be this is what I was realizing is this is needed in society
• 03:30 - 04:00 and that sparked a change for me to say okay maybe it's time for me to look out for something else and that's when I got connected with or with the job at habitat there are about 50 kids every summer that go to camp to come surf from Habitat families and we had started habitat focuses on neighborhoods as well as just bill I'll tell you more about habitat as well as just building houses and so they asked us to come out put on some one day camps at schools in the
• 04:00 - 04:30 area to try and love on these kids that are in neighborhoods that they're working in and teach them a few things about being good neighbors and that's how I got connected with Habitat for Humanity okay it was hard to leave I have my best friends at camp I've lived at the camp for 20 years with my family raised my family there my daughter was devastated that we were leaving and this was another one of those junction points where it's like I don't know if
• 04:30 - 05:00 we want to do this or not we've got a good thing going here but that was comfortable it had become comfortable and it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing and so you have another junction point where you say I don't know if this is it feels like the right thing but it's tough right are you gonna walk through this door you're gonna shrink back as a leader you got to walk through that door if you feel like it's the right thing to do okay and so we walk through that door move to town we actually bought a house before I had the job which is the wrong way around I feel like should I have a job
• 05:00 - 05:30 before you buy a house right right but we felt like it was the right thing to do and and we joined Habitat for Humanity a few things about habitat that you may or may not everyone knows that habitat builds houses right who do they build houses for why do they build houses anybody yep so we help people achieve homeownership that wouldn't otherwise be able to achieve
• 05:30 - 06:00 homeownership we're not giving houses away the families we're building with not for because they're involved in the building process we help them in in that way they have an affordable mortgage housing and housing costs there is a there is a crisis nationwide as far as affordable affordability and so habitat steps in and works with families to help them achieve homeownership and create a
• 06:00 - 06:30 stronger foundation to work from a stable environment where I used the example of kids changing schools earlier and then to become more self-reliant all right what we want to do is we want to walk with a family through the process okay to connect them and help them feel valued through the process those two things I talked about earlier so that they can have their own home and become more self-reliant and stable in the process all right so habitat in this
• 06:30 - 07:00 area is built over 300 homes in the greater Lafayette area we serve six counties and so that's a that's a big part of what we do average about ten houses a year so that's ten families that come through and aside from that we as I mentioned we do neighborhood work and so they have a model called neighborhood revitalization so instead of just building houses in kind of random locations around the city they say let's focus on a whole
• 07:00 - 07:30 neighborhood all right and let's help see what we can do to help it thrive and they don't come in and say hey guys you need X Y & Z you need you know community center and you need shops and you need this all right the process is we get together with residents and say what do you want this neighborhood to look like what do you hopes dreams concerns and then what do you have to bring to the table to help make it happen and we are a player at the table that helps try to
• 07:30 - 08:00 make that happen but what what you notice instead of just building houses this you're building community together all right and so as if you've been down to Wabash Avenue there's a student hangout down there called sacred grounds anyone being coffee shop I see a lot of students in there sometimes but you got a lot of coffee shops on campus too what happens because of neighborhood revitalization as you notice it Sam it's a way more holistic approach to community building and so on Wabash Avenue which is where our office is and
• 08:00 - 08:30 it's also a low income neighborhood a lot of work has been done there over the last seven years to try and help this neighborhood thrive if you know anybody from the area and you mentioned Wabash Avenue they would say I was told not to go down there when I was a kid you stay away from that place all right but when you bring residents to the table and say hey what do you want this to look like we're gonna help and what do you have to bring to the table good things happen and so multiple partnerships have formed
• 08:30 - 09:00 habitats built over 30 houses in that neighborhood they've repaired roofs build sheds you know all of those kind of things and they needed a community space so instead of us building a house we built a community center where people can come and hang out together and do events and if you live on the Avenue you get it for free okay they are in a food desert area which means there's no fresh produce within walking distance and so we partner with grow local to have some urban sharing gardens and residents in the area can come and harvest for free so they have access to
• 09:00 - 09:30 fresh vegetables churches are down there starting youth groups there's a woodworking Club for kids because there was no activities for kids Timothy's tools they teach basic carpentry all right and so that's what we're about at Habitat for Humanity is we think everyone deserves a decent place to live and we're about given a hand up not a handout and so that's what we're about from a leadership standpoint at habitat what I'm faced with now is
• 09:30 - 10:00 they've been around for 35 years the guy who started it 35 years ago just retired no pressure right and I will tell you I just want to be raw and honest with you that transition is hard transition is hard moving from one leader to another leader leader who's been there for a long time staff you know really looked up to him has a great legacy and so I get to step into that and say okay let's
• 10:00 - 10:30 give this a shot right and so here I think the biggest challenges I'm faced with as a leader now is having a group of people that were following a different leader buy into the vision that we create for Habitat and so from a leadership principle standpoint I've been there for a year but I knew as soon as I stepped in that I can't bring my own agenda because as a good leader I think good leaders build trust before
• 10:30 - 11:00 they they start trying to do things that they think are most important so what does building trust look like for you guys what kind of things build trust would you say yeah genuine conversation taking an interest in people all right good yep what else what else builds trust following through on things right at this particular habitat they've had a
• 11:00 - 11:30 turnover problem for a while they've had staff come in promised the world and then leave I'll get told they have to leave all right and so I knew that this was a problem when I came in all right and so if I if I come in and start saying yeah you want to do this and then don't follow through trust goes goes down immediately right that's a big one follow through on what you commit to what else honesty yep yep this is being a huge thing for
• 11:30 - 12:00 me in the last I would say five years and that is this idea of being candid with each other right you can use the word honest but if you ask a whole group like if I asked you do you want to be honest I don't think anyone in here would say no I don't want to be honest but if I asked you would you be candid with each other that's slightly different what's the difference between honesty and candidness is there a difference or is it just the word I don't think there's a difference really
• 12:00 - 12:30 all right and and about here this is where I learned to love difficult conversations not because I like to you know create a mess but I think that's what business happens right if you can get in this position why you have built a trusting relationship with people than having these challenging conversations constructive conversations becomes the
• 12:30 - 13:00 place where things can really get done I learned on this journey when I was responsible for evaluating my peers they know when UBS's right oh well yeah you're doing really great over here but they know it's coming they know the oriole method give them the prayers tell him something they you know they need to work on but leave it with praise people see through that stuff all right so how do you get to a place as a leader where you can have
• 13:00 - 13:30 honest candid conversations with people right because if you don't what happens if you let those conversations slip what happens nothing changes so then what happens it does it get better or does it get worse yeah a lot of times it goes even further right especially we're frustrations are concerned if you are like now I'll just let it go no you want it's gonna come back up down the line somewhere so how do you create a situation where
• 13:30 - 14:00 you can have this conversation and still maintain relationship yeah I had a very good friend at camp and actually I work with him now and just the nicest guy his wife was very blunt and she's very opinionated and they both worked at camp together and she had it she had a position in a slightly different department and she was letting her mouth
• 14:00 - 14:30 go about some things and it was affecting his position at camp and the tendency is to say oh what can we do to kind of get around it and I've remember a very specific conversation that I had to have with both of them where I thought this is gonna suck big time right but to go into that conversation and say look I love you both but I have to let you know what's going on here you you're rubbing
• 14:30 - 15:00 people the wrong way and I'm telling you this because I love you right and I don't want this to continue it's not that I'm calling you out on this situation I'm letting you know these are the kind of comments that I'm hearing all right if I don't do that it weighs on me it weighs on me it weighs on me it affects how I can lead in the future whereas if you walk into it what does the other other side feel like when you come out of those conversations I
• 15:00 - 15:30 feel so much lighter right if you're able to have those conversations so coming in to the habitat environment this is one of the things that I that I have been preaching from the beginning because when you talk about it with the people around you but not to the person that it most affects in your relationship only bad things happen there's a quote by Ed Catmull from he wrote he's the CEO of Pixar and I wrote a book called creativity Inc and I said this quote that has stuck with me if
• 15:30 - 16:00 there's more conversation in the hall after the meeting than in the meeting you've got a problem with your coach and you may have sat in meetings where you've been asked for your opinion or someone's being asked for their opinion they don't see anything but the moment they get outside they start sharing all these things we have to get to a place where we can have constructive conversation with each other if you want a strong culture you want to create a strong culture as a leader you need a pro you need to promote these candid
• 16:00 - 16:30 conversations does it happen overnight no this is something else that I'm experienced and now as a leader is change takes time changing culture takes even longer all right and you can't say it once I've heard you know that the directors position is the chief repetition officer you got to keep going back there all right you can't just say it once and expect that that's gonna happen you have to keep going back there
• 16:30 - 17:00 I remember a leader at camp we want to be the most friendly and most helpful place when someone shows up we want to be friendly and helpful I don't know how many staff meetings it's like all right I get it but it took that for it to really become ingrained okay one of the questions you have where leadership is concerned do I have any
• 17:00 - 17:30 other thoughts what are you most interested in about leadership just looking at my notes here other questions yes
• 17:30 - 18:00 applying themselves yeah I think to me that goes back to this previous point about having candid conversations so I'm most interested in that situation why
• 18:00 - 18:30 not what why are you not like you're not enjoying it do you feel uncomfortable is there something there that's making you hard it's hard for you to do your best work right and in that process I think what what that does is it kind of filters down I think in our heads a lot of times we look at somebody who's not trying and you say come on man what's your problem instead of asking them what is the problem right why are you what what's happening here that's not
• 18:30 - 19:00 allowing you again to do your best work does that make sense and but it's having the again as a supervisor employee it's a little easier sometimes to have that conversation but if it's peer to peer like you guys are in a group situation and you notice somebody who's not given the same effort that you're giving anyone being in that situation before I would imagine every hand in the room has experienced that before how do you do that in a way again that maintains
• 19:00 - 19:30 relationship and for me I really want every want everyone to be successful then what can you do in that situation I think our tendency is to like plug up the courage plug up the courage you're not doing your share or you're not doing this and I don't see that given the relationship much chance you know what I mean so how do you do it in a way that not only maintains relationship but promotes relationship hey man I've noticed that you know I've seen it seems like you struggling a
• 19:30 - 20:00 little bit in class with I don't know whatever it is that you're asking them to do is there something going on is everything okay I think starting with that is everything okay is much better than you're not really cutting it yeah you know what I mean so that answer your question yeah
• 20:00 - 20:30 [Music] mm-hmm that's a great question because I think a lot of times what you think is the ideal is like hey it's like we're the same person this is awesome but in strong teams there is a lot of diversity and that includes personalities and I will admit I can there have been times in my career where people have rubbed me the wrong way and and some of it is just personality and I noticed I can think of times where I've
• 20:30 - 21:00 maybe haven't given them the same shot as someone else who is easier to supervise or work with I think what I by the time I left camp the way we kind of approached that is we did some intentional training with the staff to say here's a he has like six or seven different personalities and we gave them all a name and we gave them all a story and we told that story to everybody and we talked about how do you work with
• 21:00 - 21:30 this person how do you personally work with this person raise your hand if you struggle with this kind of personality and given this space to just acknowledge that it is hard right raise your hand if you you argue gravitate to people like this right and so at camp you know this the frat guy was one of the people that we have a lot of folks that come from the fraternity sorority scene you know the the person who's like ultra athlete and then we had the
• 21:30 - 22:00 hipster you know and and so you kind of we categorized each of those and again not to say everyone fits into all of those categories but it's close in a lot of ways to a lot of the personalities that came through camp and so acknowledging first of all that different personalities exist and then saying this is a healthy thing and trying to set it up that way for me as a leader I felt like that set the team up more for success and as a leader reminded me hey this is a thing and there are going to be people that
• 22:00 - 22:30 you don't identify with quite as much and I think identifying that allows you to keep yourself more accountable in that way answer your question anybody else no okay it's gonna yeah I think if you don't have any more questions yes
• 22:30 - 23:00 it's a great question so there are many different ways that we volunteer czar kind of the lifeblood of the organization to make things happen and so you can sign up to come out you know for a half-day or a day we like people to come for a whole day you can get more accomplishes a lot oftentimes a lot of training that that's involved if you're an individual just get on the website
• 23:00 - 23:30 and fill out the information form and someone will get back with you on and what that looks like so there is build opportunities you don't have to have experience feel comfortable on a worksite we can train you on on a lot of the things I think there are other ways that we have other folks volunteer as far as if we get a lot of student groups organizations that want to come together and so building sometimes as neighborhood work as far as cleanup or projects that we're doing sometimes groups provide meals for volunteers we
• 23:30 - 24:00 like to kind of eat around the same table and so volunteer groups will bring the food in and it's just a great way of you work by each other and then you eat by each other and it's a great way of building relationships so those are kind of the main ways we also have a chapter here on on campus that is a Habitat for Humanity I think it's one of the bigger dues-paying or josè Shinzon on campus student groups so that's another way they're always looking for folks to get involved that
• 24:00 - 24:30 way and there's great leadership opportunity with their positions as well and so highlight those is the most important ways but you can get connected through the website thank you guys appreciate it I hope there was a few little tidbits that made you think again everyone's story is
• 24:30 - 25:00 different everyone's journey is different but so thank you