Looking Back: Bart on Leadership
I was on a cleaning blitz today, and I finally decided to look through a three-ring binder I'd saved from a leadership class I took in 2004. At that time, I was still living in Northern Virginia, working for Radian Inc (subsequently bought by ESSI, which was bought by Finemeccanica) as a proposal writer. Among the items in the binder was my look at the future 25 years out.
Bart, A.D. 2030
Overview
Education
Business, filmmaking, drawing, painting
Money / Material
Better investments, more savings, better position, side/consulting income, art/travel supplies/gear
Behavior
Better health, better diet, more exercise, stress reduction, caring for others, more self-confidence, romance, sociability
Deliverables
Books, articles, blogs, op-eds, stories, scripts, paintings, drawings, movies
Results
Better balance, more clarity, more confidence, bravery, self-awareness, financial security, ability to take care of myself and those I care about, happiness, peace
All in all, an interesting vision. It's not far off from the trajectory I've been pursuing. If I haven't become more of an "outdoorsman," I've at least spent more time in the gym than I used to. And I have managed to get some traveling done, here and abroad. I haven't pursued my artistic side as much as I probably would have liked, but I have pursued travel and outside writing. Things to work on and look forward to, anyway.
Another thing I worked on in this class was a statement of leadership philosophy. The concepts evolved a bit over the course of the six-week class. Here's what I had to say:
11/8/04
I am fascinated by leaders and the practice of leadership because, in my reading experience, a leader is an individual who is able to get others to do things they might never have accomplished otherwise. Leaders have specific goals in mind and are able to tap the best abilities of each team member in order to accomplish these goals. Ideally, leaders act as teachers or facilitators of a working body of professionals, assuming the mantle of authority only to solve problems, arrange compromises, or break logjams within the group. They respect the concerns and demonstrate loyalty toward others upward, parallel to, or below them in the organization, even to the point of being the "loyal opposition."
11/15/04
Leaders are imbued with a powerful vision of the end result and are able to tap the best abilities of each team member in order to accomplish those goals. In order to ensure success, leaders must facilitate an environment that thrives on and encourages individual autonomy, learning, and courtesy. Ideally, leaders also inspire a working body of professionals through leading by example, living by a recognizable code of integrity, and working hard to accomplish the group's goal, even if that work requires performing tasks "below their station." Leaders should assume the mantle of autority only to solve problems, arrange compromises, or break logjams within the group. They should respect the concerns of, and demonstrate loyalty toward, others in the organization, even to the point of being the "loyal opposition."
12/1/04
Leaders should be imbued with a powerful vision of an end result and are able to tap the best abilities of each team member in order to accomplish that result. In order to achieve success, leaders must facilitate an environment that thrives on and encourages individual autonomy, learning, and courtesy. Ideally, leaders also inspire a working body of professionals through leading by example, living by a recognizable code of integrity, and working hard to accomplish the group's goal, even if that work requires performing tasks "below their station." Leaders should assume the mantle of authority only to solve problems, arrange compromises, or break logjams within the group. They should respect the concerns of, and demonstrate loyalty toward, others in the organization, even to the point of being the "loyal opposition." A good leader's commitment to excellence and personal respect should be reflected in his actions and in the attitudes of those whom the leader seeks to lead.
Again, an interesting set of comments. I recognize the attitudes because that's more or less how I tried to run ISDC. I can't say I succeeded in all those ways. For instance, there were situations where I wanted to give someone more autonomy, but I couldn't because I had no budget for them and thus no prescribed boundaries or "rules of engagement," which meant that I had to do a lot of things myself until the budget became clear.
I also know that I was not as courteous as I would have liked at all points. I lost my temper on a couple of occasions because people were not sharing information with me or things were not happening the way I had planned or was told they would happen.
However, those two examples aside, the conference itself ran very smoothly because I managed to get good people in the right positions. After the first couple days (of five), I found myself able to hide in a corner somewhere and let my team do their jobs. I was brought in--as expected--only when there were high-level problems. I found out about little things afterward, and they were little, for the most part. The last "executive action" I took during the conference was at the end of the last luncheon on the last day, when I had to calmly and jokingly direct people to the basement for a tornado warning ("Folks, much as I'd like to say I'm kidding...").
I was on a cleaning blitz today, and I finally decided to look through a three-ring binder I'd saved from a leadership class I took in 2004. At that time, I was still living in Northern Virginia, working for Radian Inc (subsequently bought by ESSI, which was bought by Finemeccanica) as a proposal writer. Among the items in the binder was my look at the future 25 years out.
Bart, A.D. 2030
Overview
- Writer/Intellectual
- Artist/Filmmaker
- Outdoorsman
- Executive/Entrepreneur/Consultant
- Husband
- World Traveler
- Wise Counselor
- Good Friend
- Happy Wherever I Am
Education
Business, filmmaking, drawing, painting
Money / Material
Better investments, more savings, better position, side/consulting income, art/travel supplies/gear
Behavior
Better health, better diet, more exercise, stress reduction, caring for others, more self-confidence, romance, sociability
Deliverables
Books, articles, blogs, op-eds, stories, scripts, paintings, drawings, movies
Results
Better balance, more clarity, more confidence, bravery, self-awareness, financial security, ability to take care of myself and those I care about, happiness, peace
All in all, an interesting vision. It's not far off from the trajectory I've been pursuing. If I haven't become more of an "outdoorsman," I've at least spent more time in the gym than I used to. And I have managed to get some traveling done, here and abroad. I haven't pursued my artistic side as much as I probably would have liked, but I have pursued travel and outside writing. Things to work on and look forward to, anyway.
Another thing I worked on in this class was a statement of leadership philosophy. The concepts evolved a bit over the course of the six-week class. Here's what I had to say:
11/8/04
I am fascinated by leaders and the practice of leadership because, in my reading experience, a leader is an individual who is able to get others to do things they might never have accomplished otherwise. Leaders have specific goals in mind and are able to tap the best abilities of each team member in order to accomplish these goals. Ideally, leaders act as teachers or facilitators of a working body of professionals, assuming the mantle of authority only to solve problems, arrange compromises, or break logjams within the group. They respect the concerns and demonstrate loyalty toward others upward, parallel to, or below them in the organization, even to the point of being the "loyal opposition."
11/15/04
Leaders are imbued with a powerful vision of the end result and are able to tap the best abilities of each team member in order to accomplish those goals. In order to ensure success, leaders must facilitate an environment that thrives on and encourages individual autonomy, learning, and courtesy. Ideally, leaders also inspire a working body of professionals through leading by example, living by a recognizable code of integrity, and working hard to accomplish the group's goal, even if that work requires performing tasks "below their station." Leaders should assume the mantle of autority only to solve problems, arrange compromises, or break logjams within the group. They should respect the concerns of, and demonstrate loyalty toward, others in the organization, even to the point of being the "loyal opposition."
12/1/04
Leaders should be imbued with a powerful vision of an end result and are able to tap the best abilities of each team member in order to accomplish that result. In order to achieve success, leaders must facilitate an environment that thrives on and encourages individual autonomy, learning, and courtesy. Ideally, leaders also inspire a working body of professionals through leading by example, living by a recognizable code of integrity, and working hard to accomplish the group's goal, even if that work requires performing tasks "below their station." Leaders should assume the mantle of authority only to solve problems, arrange compromises, or break logjams within the group. They should respect the concerns of, and demonstrate loyalty toward, others in the organization, even to the point of being the "loyal opposition." A good leader's commitment to excellence and personal respect should be reflected in his actions and in the attitudes of those whom the leader seeks to lead.
Again, an interesting set of comments. I recognize the attitudes because that's more or less how I tried to run ISDC. I can't say I succeeded in all those ways. For instance, there were situations where I wanted to give someone more autonomy, but I couldn't because I had no budget for them and thus no prescribed boundaries or "rules of engagement," which meant that I had to do a lot of things myself until the budget became clear.
I also know that I was not as courteous as I would have liked at all points. I lost my temper on a couple of occasions because people were not sharing information with me or things were not happening the way I had planned or was told they would happen.
However, those two examples aside, the conference itself ran very smoothly because I managed to get good people in the right positions. After the first couple days (of five), I found myself able to hide in a corner somewhere and let my team do their jobs. I was brought in--as expected--only when there were high-level problems. I found out about little things afterward, and they were little, for the most part. The last "executive action" I took during the conference was at the end of the last luncheon on the last day, when I had to calmly and jokingly direct people to the basement for a tornado warning ("Folks, much as I'd like to say I'm kidding...").
 |
| Are those sirens I hear? |
So I suppose, as a leadership experience, ISDC was successful as I define leadership: the team did most of the work and I was there to make the ugly/tough calls. Anything I couldn't handle got kicked upstairs, which wasn't much. Bottom line: I suppose I learned a few things about leadership in seven years. That doesn't mean I like being the boss, but I at least have a consistent philosophy of how I should behave if I'm forced to be one.
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