A Personal Leadership Statement

Leadership can seem like a nebulous topic, something that you either have or do not have as an innate skill, and despite the myriad volumes of books available, many of them provide little by way of what to do when faced with a challenge. The following is a reflection on my own journey as a leader, what experiences have led to me where I am, and my potential for impact and growth.

I grew up in a small town in Reno, NV. My father was on disability, and my mother worked in a casino in a cash cage to make ends meet. Neither of them went to college, and neither of them held any titles in their employment history. Yet, when their friends needed guidance, they sought the advice of my parents. I remember them sitting down to pots of coffee with friends, laughing and then crying, sorting out the details and making a plan for moving forward. This is my earliest exposure to what it means to be a leader.

As I grew older, I found myself rising to meet the needs of others, just as I had modeled for me. I was also strong academically and excelling at music. When I graduated high school as salutatorian and prepared to move into my dorm room for college, my mother told me how proud she was. I was the first woman in my family to go to college, and no matter where I ended up, I was paving the way for those who came after me. My first tangible leadership lesson was this: lead by example.

During my first attempt at college, I did just that. I attended class, volunteered with the local school system as a tutor, and even got a job as a waitress. I held myself to high standards, and I found that those around me rose to them, as well. I wanted to be the kind of person who brought the best out in others. When I found myself pregnant in my third year of college and lost my scholarship, I was humiliated. I moved back home, but I chose not to tell anyone I was pregnant. I had been keeping things to myself that I worried would tarnish my name, and it wasn’t until I was almost eight months along that I informed my family. Once again, my mother was there with my second leadership lesson: lead with integrity and honesty.

After my first son was born, I put myself through school to finish my Associate’s Degree in Medical Laboratory Technology. Not quite the four-year degree I hoped to obtain, I was still the first woman to go to school and acquire a degree. My second and third child came eighteen months apart from one another, and my youngest son changed the course of my life forever. My Timmy was nonverbal until he was six, and the challenges of raising a son on the spectrum were just our way of life. I remember getting compliments on how strong I was and what a patient mom I was, but for me, there was no choice but to be the strong and patient so my son could have a safe environment in which to learn and grow. We developed our own methods of communicating, and as he learned how to interact with the world without my help, I went back to school to finish my Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Technology. My lesson from Timmy has always been that leading others often involves creating safe space for them to fail. As I embraced this, I even learned to create space for myself to fail, as well.

Now that I am completing a Master’s Degree, the first one in my family for anyone, I look back on those formative lessons and can clearly see how much these experiences changed who I am and how I operate in relationships with others. I would add perseverance and compassion to my list of leadership traits through my careers. Working in pediatrics and eventually being ordained as a minister taught me the value of meeting others with compassion, which means to suffer with, and sticking to the work until we reach our goals. These are the lessons that arise when I hear, “leader.”

When I grow up, I aspire to be a big picture leader. Daniel Goleman (2014) defines big picture leaders as a “rare souls who operate on behalf of society itself rather than a specific political group or business” (p. 59). Though my journey started out about me as an individual, I can do a lot of good in the world for others. My experiences in medicine, in working with children with autism, and in my newest role as a Board Member for PFLAG Boulder County, opportunities abound for me to make a difference in far larger circles than the one drawn around my own little family. I identify as a great leader currently and do my part to address systems that are no longer serving our needs, whether in my department at work, in my role in the community, or in the community at large. Only together can we speak truth to power, and my lessons in leadership have prepared me to create space for others to lend their voices to the fray. We are stronger when everyone has a chance to be heard.

I have read many books on leadership theory, and I do not espouse to any one in particular. The first book that had a major effect on the way I interact with people was not a leadership book, but rather a psychology/self-help book entitled, The Five Love Languages. In his book, Gary Chapman (1995) discusses the different ways we give and receive love in one of five love languages: quality time, acts of service, gifts, words of affirmation, and physical touch (p. 10). Learning to name and express my own needs as well as to decipher the needs of others provided me with a unique foundation as a young adult to start building relationships with a genuine desire for all participants to love and feel loved in return. From this place of mutual respect and vulnerability, we find greater opportunities for growth and accomplishing goals.

Fast forward though years of ethics and pastoral study brings me to Tom Rath and Barry Conchie’s work. In their book, Strengths Based Leadership, I saw the importance of knowing not only how we feel, but also what skill sets we bring to the table as individuals to strengthen us as a team. Focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses builds self-confidence, which reaps a “cumulative advantage that continues to grow over a lifetime” (Rath & Conchie, 2008, p. 16). When we couple the focus on strengths with the best means of communicating this, we build teams that are more effective together than the individuals are alone.

I then came upon Simon Sinek’s golden circle: most folks know what we do and how we do it, but what truly inspires people is telling them WHY (Sinek, 2009, p. 37). Up until this point, I fell into the trap of thinking that being a good leader meant providing sound business policies and procedures and a clean, comfortable work environment. What was lacking was motivation. What was lacking was a way to inspire my team. When I first saw the TED Talk Mr. Sinek gave on the golden circle, I was inspired, and I wanted to bring that to my team. This work greatly improved my ability to communicate with my team and achieve results or implement change at a much faster rate. The simple act of explaining why improved relationships and provided opportunities for folks to thrive by stepping into the work with the knowledge of how they fit into the project before it even began. This was truly a gift to learn.

I also studied Paul Schmitz’s Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up. His work is a combination of strengths based leadership and community problem solving that directly involves taking asset inventory from the community members and empowering them to find their own solutions (Schmitz, 2012, p. 138). When we replace “community” with “department,” this work becomes directly relevant to problem solving with the team. This method has made a profound impact on the way we work together as a team, and I would not have been able to implement this without the previous study, which gave me the “why” behind this leadership style.

All of these have paved the way for my preferred leadership style: Mindful Leadership. Mindful Leadership is another simple change in the way we interact with people. When asking busy leaders, movers, and shakers what they would say is the one thing missing from their leadership training, ability to execute goals, and work-life balance, they all answered with one simple concept: space (Marturano, 2014, p. 10). Blending mindfulness practices with leadership presence affords a leader the ability to cultivate focus, clarity, creativity, and compassion in the service of others (Marturano, 2014, p. 11). In studying this leadership style, I finally found the place where compassion fits into leading others.

Janice Marturano (2014) describes what she calls the “purposeful pause” (p. 55). This is recognizing a moment when our attention is not where it should be, stopping for a moment to provide space for this to pass, and bringing out attention back to the present. Staring into space, a quickening of our breath, breath holding, palms sweating, or dozing off, may mark these moments. When we pause to intentionally be present with our bodies and minds, we create the space for what lurks beneath these reactions to surface. Once they are in the forefront, we can address them and ensure we move forward with the best planning in our endeavors.

This mindfulness works in interpersonal dynamics, as well. For example, I have an employee who made several mistakes in a short period of time. When I brought it up to her in a coaching session, she apologized and was ready to go back to work. I noticed her nonverbal communication, she looked at the floor then around the room before answering, as though looking for something else, and I knew there was more. I took advantage of the opportunity to create space for her, and she revealed to me that a man at her gym had died while she was there, dropping over not far from her after what turned out to be an aneurysm. She was having a hard time focusing. Without taking this moment to acknowledge the difficulty of this situation, we would not have been able to address the underlying issue and would have ended up in a disciplinary action process.

Incorporating these styles into my own blended expression of leadership has been effective. I have received feedback from my staff as well as from my peers that I am someone who is approachable and a good listener. I have worked through the tendency of this style to allow others to the advantage of me, and this is my current focus for personal growth. I believe a leader must be one who gives others a reason to follow, and if I fall prey to someone’s ability to manipulate my compassionate nature, I will not inspire those who come after me.

The greatest strength of this combination of styles lies in the ability to work well in a diverse or global environment. Each of us comes to the table with our own strengths and areas for improvement, with our own knowledge and experiences. By creating an environment where those differences are seen as an asset rather than requiring assimilation invokes trust in the team. Here at Kaiser Permanente (KP), we strive to operate as One Laboratory in line with KP’s One KP initiative. We have 32 medical office laboratories (MOLs) that feed into one regional reference lab (RRL). The lab has a long-standing history of the typical us and them mentality, which is difficult to change. I started at KP as a MOL supervisor. After my first year, I was promoted to the manager of the Core Laboratory at RRL. It was not until I changed roles that I understood the vastness of the divide between the two worlds.

As an MOL supervisor, integrating into the culture at RRL was difficult at best. I was grateful for my skills at nonverbal communication I gained in having children on the autism spectrum. I knew the trust was low, so I led discussion with the why’s behind any changes we implemented. I took time to allow them to voice their concerns. I spent time complimenting their strengths as I noticed them and asking for assistance in projects based on their skills as well as areas where I saw opportunities for folks to learn something new. Over time, I have been so proud of our ability to come together as a team. We have a long way to go, but I am confident that we will travel together successfully. My peers and management team above me have noticed the change spreading to the way the RRL staff interacts with the MOL staff, as well.

Taking up the mantle of leadership is often not a conscious decision. Most of us find ourselves taking the lead in a situation without any real knowledge of how we ended up in a position of trust and authority. The study of leadership styles, as Simon Sinek prepared me to understand, is the understanding of the why. We all know what we do and how we do it. Discovering the why provides a wealth of understanding that spreads to those around us. As John C. Maxwell said, "Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flow charts. It is about one life influencing another." When we lead by example with integrity, honesty, perseverance, and compassion, when we take the time to allow others to shine and share their perspectives, we create a space where everyone has the ability to grow and succeed, building a foundation for a team who is only limited by their own imagination.


References

Chapman, G. (1995). The five love languages: The secret to love that lasts. Chicago, IL: Northfield Publishing.

Goleman, D. (2014). Leading for the long future. Leading Organizations: Perspecitves for a New Era. (3rd Ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. p. 56-65.

Marturano, J. (2014). Finding the space to lead: A practical guide to mindful leadership. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press.

Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2008) Strengths based leadership: Great leaders, teams, and why people follow. New York, NY: Gallup Press.

Schmitz, P. (2012). Everyone leads: Building leadership from the community up. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Twelfth Night Charm

On this, the final night of Yule, we celebrate with a Core Order of Ritual, Deity of the Occasion as fitting based on your chosen form of divination. The following charm may either be performed alone just prior to divination or as part of the working of the rite with the divination to be a forecast for the year to come for the collective of folks gathered.

Devotional/Prayer: A Charm of Twelfth Night Blessing and Divination for the Year to Come

For this, light one candle for each line of prayer and then make the offerings when instructed.

With this first flame, we honor our Mothers of Old.
With second flame, our hearth and home.
With flame of three, our land-kin, most fair and free.
With flame of four, men upon our family trees.
Five flames bright, our beloved housewights.
Six flames bright, our Ancestral Guides.
With the seventh flame, the Winter Goddess we hail.
With the eighth flame, the Evergreens prevail.
With flame of nine, our allies be praised.
With flame of ten, to the Gods be our glasses raised.
Eleven flames, bring in the boar.
Twelfth Night’s Flame, completes the lore.
Reflections on the year now past
Inform our paths as we now cast
Our lots to see what the future holds
May our fortunes be foretold!
​
Cast your divination set or take your annual omen per protocol. Once your reading has been made clear, offering a spirit, food, or incense in thanks.

At midnight, take the Yule log outside and throw it on the fire while bringing next year’s log into the home. If you are not using a Yule Log, you may want to carry out the “old year” with the tea lights on a cookie sheet and “bring in the new year” with a fresh set of tea lights.

Be an Activist and Advocate for Change

Below, you will find attached ten tips for leaders to work toward social change I got from the class I am taking at Regis. First, some words of my own.

Social engagement, for me, has been very hard. I have often shied away from conflict, especially loud conflict, and I have experienced my share of gaslighting and tone-policing most women who speak out are subjected to at one time or another in their lives. I have had people stand up for me during those times as well, and I still remember and cherish each and every time someone spoke out to help me.

Those who see "boots on the ground" calls to action result in distress, guilt, and even shame in our "inability to help:" this is for you. I am writing this today, feeling inspired to share what has helped me to break my silence and cycles of fear.

There are actually three different classifications for those who are part of a social movement, Activists, Allies, and Advocates.

The Activists are easy. We see these folks on picket lines, holding signs and chanting, inspiring massive groups of people to speak in unity. This can be a very scary thought for the introverts and softer folks among us. If this is you, there is nothing wrong with you.

The Allies are those who learn about the plight of the group for which they want to speak on a deeper, more personal level. They learn about who they are, what they care about, how they got here, and what they need. The allies listen and act when there is a chance. These interactions are more likely to be one-offs and likely have fewer participants. They make a big impact on smaller situations and individuals. These are important. There have been some good resources floating around on what it means to be an ally. The title, "ally," is not one you can give yourself, though. You have to earn it through action.

Advocates are often the administrators. I have heard the term "administrative activist" thrown around to describe them. These are the folks who write letters, organize campaigns, run the crowdsourcing, provide a plan for clothing and feeding a long-term protest, and focus on being a voice for social change among leaders and politicians. These folks are vital and often unsung heros of these movements.

My point is we need all three of these, and no matter what our strengths or areas where we can improve might be, we can be a vital part of creating social change for the groups we serve. The ten tips in this short piece are likely to be useful no matter what your mission might be.

Thank you for reading. May you be inspired today. May your heart be moved.

Be an Activist and Advocate for Change

The nonprofit sector is the second largest part of the private economy in the United States, generating almost $1 trillion per year. This sector employs nearly 10% of the workforce and in many locations that number is even greater. With such a huge potential economic engine and political power base, why are nonprofit organizations almost never taken into consideration when key community and political decisions are made? Why aren’t nonprofits more engaged in advocacy and activism?

The answer: many nonprofit leaders are afraid of the political process and/or don’t think they need to get involved in lobbying and activism. Some of them are even afraid that if they lobby they will lose their funding. The fact remains that nonprofits can only gain strength and power (as organizations, alliances, and as a sector) if they become active in the activist process.

Here are some tips on getting involved as both an advocate and an activist.

1. Every nonprofit has the right and the responsibility to become engaged and involved in activism. The IRS permits a certain percentage of a nonprofit’s income to be used to support lobbying around issues (not candidates). If you want to file as an actual lobbying organization your board of directors can easily pass a stipulation to the 501 (c) (3) called an; H election.
2. Of the $1 trillion per year going into the nonprofit sector almost $750 billion comes from the government and public sector. This is a huge amount of money and the decisions on the use of the money are determined by the elected officials and the bureaucratic structures.
3. Activism is all about leadership development. It takes an effective leader to testify in front of a house or senate committee, and to mobilize people to write letters and e-mails. Advocacy is a great training ground for the development of strong leaders.
4. Be clear when it comes to voicing what you want. Make sure you are very clear and specific when you request something from a decision-maker.
5. Research to make sure you know what you are talking about. Before you begin to write letters or testify make sure you do your homework and know the facts. It is not okay to just have a lot of passion and compassion. You need to be competent as well.
6. The media can become your best friend. A famous community organizer once told me that the “media is the great equalizer.” The media can help spread the word and help mobilize other people. But treat the media with respect and be prepared and careful when talking with a reporter.
7. Don’t be intimidated by power. This is a big issue with many nonprofit leaders who feel intimidated by elected representatives and people of authority. Remember, these representatives work for you and it is important that they listen carefully to the people who are close to the issues and solutions.
8. Don’t be afraid of power. One definition of power is “the ability to act.” Without this ability we feel helpless. In the middle of the word empowerment is power – we should all be working on helping people gain more strength, confidence, and power.
9. Mobilize your constituency. The political establishment responds to people who are committed enough to express their opinions and become involved in the democratic process. We need to demonstrate democracy by having people become active in the issues they care about through letter writing, emails, testifying, phone calls, and personal visits.
10. Have a “deep throat” working for you. When working on an issue, try to have a friend “inside the system” provide you with information that will help you map out a strategy, or time the writing of a letter, or advise you as to when it will be a good time to testify.

We Can't Drink Oil

The bosom of the Earth Mother upon which we feed
Fills our mouths with oil as we suck upon our greed.
The Earth is our Mother, abused by our fathers,
We roll our eyes at her and begin to despise her.
We look out upon her and see where she’s not pretty anymore—and look away.
We take her for granted, and we ignore her anguish.
What’s one more scar? What’s one more bruise?
What’s one more cut, one more bleeding mark upon her flesh?
Why does it matter when everything is so broken?
Why does it matter when the marks are already there,
Reminding us of the wounds that are festering below
Because we won’t let them heal?

Instead, we set our sights skyward, looking up at the clouds and the stars,
Looking up at the skyline, at twilight, at dawn.
Looking toward the light to block out the shadowy places
To avoid seeing what has happened, is happening around us.
Looking away from the places that hurt our eyes,uhh
Looking away from the places that hurt our hearts,
Looking away—from all that we’ve done to her.

Battered and beaten and bruised and yet still she blooms,
Bringing us season after season of crops to feed us
Even though we deplete all her resources,
Rip everything from the land that would keep us strong,
Pull everything from her that makes her rich to make ourselves rich
Until she is dusty and dry without even enough water to shed a tear.

Impenetrable desire for money and power lead to shots fired,
Hearts shatter, the Ancestors are crying.
The children of the earth are willing to die for this.
Are we really willing to kill them?
Backhoes and bulldozers tearing up the land,
Bringing the ancestors bones to the surface.
If this were a white cemetery, all hell would be raised with those bones.
The bones of the Ancestors of the peoples of this land,
Living people who elicit no more than a shrug
if even a second glance at their suffering.
What kind of nation have we built upon the bones of these ancestors?
What kind of nation do we live in? Where do we live?

We call the Gods and Goddesses the First Children of the Mother.
We call the Mother by the names we give to her where we stand.
Here in Colorado, she is known for the earth colored red.
We hail to her as our Earth Mother, Mother Colorado.
If the native peoples are the First Children of the Mother of this land,
Do we not then owe them our respect? Do we not owe them honor?
Do we not owe honor to their Ancestors, to the Ancestors of this land,
To the Ancestors of the people who were first
To worship the Earth Mother in this place?

Instead we call them Outdwellers .
We push them to the outskirts of our society.
We call them “less than” and corral them onto broken lands
Where they try strive to hold on to what little bit of sacred space they have left,
And we take that from them, too.
When will we learn to respect them? When will we learn?
Soon the oil will be gone, the water will be gone,
The food will be gone, the animals will be gone, and the people will be gone.
The Earth will remain, but if we don’t stop, she won’t be able to sustain us.
Earth Mother, save us from ourselves.
Earth Mother, hear our prayer.
We can't drink oil.

A Short Essay on Cultural Appropriation

Cultural Appropriation. Since the beginning of our predecessors’ quest for control of the lands of the Americas, colonization efforts have served to massively appropriate the lands, art, ceremonial artifacts and practices to the extinction and near-extinction of hundreds of Indigenous cultures. The remaining fragments that the Indigenous peoples have are heavily tied to their religious identity. The appropriation of these last vestiges of a once-thriving people is fueling the final extinction of the original cultures (Young & Brunk, 2012, p. 93). Appropriation is different from cultural exchange in that exchange occurs naturally between two or more cultures whose interactions are on a peer-level. Appropriation occurs when a group with more power takes cultural elements from a group with lesser power without their permission or instruction. We see far-too-many self-professed “White Shamans” whose lineage involves a list of other white people who have learned the knowledge they teach from books written about Indigenous peoples that often blend the religious practices of several tribes while giving credit to almost none of them. These individuals are often referred to as plastic shamans, these people attempting to pass themselves off as shamans, holy people, or other traditional spiritual leaders with no genuine connection to the traditions or cultures they claim to represent (Pagan Wiccan, 2016).

The spirit of appropriation is also relevant to those who work with “dead cultures” such as the Old Irish, Old Norse, and Indo-Iranian hearth cultures. As Starhawk (2011) states, appropriation is “Taking the gifts of the Ancestors without a commitment to their descendants” (p. 59).  This is the premise of much of the awareness we promote at Mountain Ancestors. Rev. William Ashton II (2016) recently spoke of Outdwellers being made by a new power of dominant culture pushing the conquered peoples to the outside away from the fire; his modeling involves making an offering of tobacco to the descendants of this land, those who we have made the Outdwellers, in the hopes that we will one day heal the wounds inflicted by colonialism in the United States. Further, we promote the exploration of the current, modern peoples from the cultures whose Gods and practices we have borrowed or reconstructed in addition to the scholarly pursuit of ancient archaeology and lore, not only as adult education, but also as part of children’s education. We have been working toward peace relations between the pagan community and the Indigenous peoples in the area. There are several local tribes, and it is part of our work to build a bridge of respect and understanding with them in the hopes of building community.

References

Ashton II, Rev. W. (2016). Outsiders. Mountain Ancestors Fall Symposium. 17 Sept 2016. Boulder, CO.

Pagan Wiccan About.com. Plastic Shamans. Retrieved from http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/ControversialIssues/fl/Plastic-Shamans.htm

Starhawk. (2011). The empowerment manual: A guide for collaborative groups. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.

Young, J.O & Brunk, C.G. eds. (2012). The ethics of cultural appropriation. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.