“Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do.” - Frances Hesselbein
I’m writing this post from the airport in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s already late in the evening and I’m typing over a plate of black-eyed peas, candied yams, cornbread and cabbage from my favorite airport restaurant, Paschal’s. (I bet you thought I was gonna say fried chicken, huh? Nope! I’ve been vegetarian for a few months now. I’m loving the lifestyle change so far.)
Anyway, today I had the opportunity to present one of my signature workshops: “Defining Your Own Leadership: How to Develop a Personal Mission Statement” at the TSAE New Ideas Annual Conference in Houston, Texas. The personal mission statement workshop is, by far, my absolute favorite one to present out of the dozen or so topics that I cover in my speaking work. Why? Because it allows me to connect with every person in the room on a meaningful level. At the end of every one of these workshops, at least one person comes up to thank me for being there. Those interactions, no matter how brief, are, hands-down, THE reason why I do what I do. Helping other people live on purpose is my way of making a difference. It’s been a crazy week of travel for me going back and forth between DC, Austin, DC and now Houston. But I wouldn’t trade this opportunity for anything else in the world right now.
My workshop was listed as a “deep dive” session in the conference program, which I think was very accurate. What I emphasize in the workshop is that it’s NOT me talking at you for 75 minutes – it’s an opportunity for facilitated reflection on your personal and professional life. While most conference programs around the country are filled with session after session on how to do - fundraising, social media, technology, strategic planning – there are very few on how to be.
What’s the difference?
Professional Development is Inextricably Linked to Personal Development
Well, one thing I’ve noticed in my work is that there is a HUGE void in our learning when we talk about professional development of any kind without acknowledging the unavoidable connection with personal development. The truth is that our personal issues affect our ability to perform in the workplace, for better or for worse. Think about it for a moment. Have you ever worked with or for a manager whose fear of change or lack of confidence affected her ability to make important decisions for the organization? But instead of talking directly about the personal issues that need to be addressed, the manager may be encouraged to take a technical class in effective decisionmaking or risk management.
A Missed Opportunity for Professional Development
This is a missed opportunity in professional development, especially in the nonprofit sector. It’s easier to measure “doing” activities, so that’s what we focus on. “Being” activities are more difficult to conceptualize. We talk about the values of our organizations, but we rarely talk about the values of our employees. If we want to develop authentic leadership, however, the link between personal and professional development can no longer be ignored. This gap is sometimes addressed as an aside in presentations on management or even social media – when we talk about fear and lack of trust. These are real issues we all deal with everyday that prevent us from leading from a place of alignment and integrity. And if we don’t start talking about them – in every organization and at every conference - they’re only going to get worse.
This is one of the reasons why Trista Harris and I will be hosting the Nonprofit Rockstar Leadership Intensive later this month in Washington, DC. We need more opportunities to learn how to be versus how to do. Ironically, the actual doing isn’t what holds most people back, anyway. It’s not knowing how to show up for the responsibility of being a leader.
What do you think? Are we too focused on “how to do” at conferences? How can we support more learning objectives on “how to be?”
