Tag Archives: Leadership

A hiking mentor

I live here, but I am new.

She is my guest, but she has been here many times before.

I am getting acquainted with all the trails and only take the long ones on weekends – days off from work.

She knows this place like the back of her hand.

I live in housing with four walls and have not yet camped seven miles out under the stars.

She has spent many October birthday weeks 4 X 4 camping at the end of Salt Creek and taking daily forays further into the wilderness.

Salt Creek is closed to wheeled vehicles now, open only to those visitors on foot. But she remembers exploring after hearty dinners around the campfire.

She is older than I – not much-but her memory is sharp. Her memories are good. Very good. This is her favorite place.

Now she is showing me around, introducing me to my own neighborhood. “Right over this hill,” she says, “right around this rock, I found a couple granaries and pictographs I don’t think the rangers know about. Over there, you can see a panel if you have binoculars. The ranger pointed that out, but I have never seen it.”

There are other things she teaches me too, like how to eat well while hiking or camping. What to prepare. Which items to bring. What footwear to choose.

Hiking alone is always inspiring. Wandering is fine. But sooner or later you need a hiking mentor to show you the good stuff.

I doubt I will ever attain her status – the ability to cook chicken cacciatore for eight and then pack it to the hut on Nordic skis.

But I do aspire to her confidence and belief in the abilities of others. Also, her calm patience when backtracking for a lost camera. The camera that carelessly slipped from my pocket and to the ground right after I took the eagle picture. The backtrack that added an extra mile to the ten for which I had steeled myself. The backtrack that we felt acutely in the heat of the day on the last two miles that terminated our trek and restored us to hot running water.

Never-the-less, we venture on another trail today, unflagging. Well-guided. Mentored. Ever learning.

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Leadership and the New Kid on the Block

I completed my university degree later in life – focused on using it toward the goal of writing and teaching music. The formal words on my diploma read, “Organizational Management – Leadership.”  Over the years, I have observed and experienced the benefits of servant leadership / leadership with love and wisdom; as well as the opposite. Here is what I think.

No matter your rank on the leadership ladder; if you are the new kid on the block, you must learn “the way we have always done it,” before the old timers will hear what you have to say regarding the new and improved. 

No matter how analytical you are, nor how clearly you can see what needs to happen; cool and aloof, behind the scenes changes are probably not going to accomplish all you were hired to change.  You need to add some extrovert to your introvert. At some point, you will have to rub shoulders with the good old boys and build a social relationship.

Many things are taught by example, but others do need to be addressed directly. Just because emergency surgery is effective and must be done to eradicate some practices; there is no reason for becoming knife happy and leveling the entire organization.  Remodels take time.  You may have to model and remodel again and again. 

In the beginning, (when you are the new kid on the block) it’s going to take a bit more of your personal time – whether you are on salary or hourly wages.

You must eliminate perfectionism as your goal and replace it with excellence.  Then, as you model again and again; it will be necessary to articulate the goal in an inspiring way.     You may have to explain clearly.  The challenge becomes how to speak plainly without being condescending. 

And all the while, keep asking yourself, “Am I leading by serving? Just doing enough to get the job done? Demanding that others do it my way, at my speed? Am I constantly jockeying for position, or am I leading in love?