Yesterday I was on a panel for Nonprofit Association of Oregon on being an executive director. The other two panelists were great leaders in our community. They were Amber Myre from Living Opportunities and Kevin Lamson from Hearts with a Mission. Amber grew up in Living Opportunities and Kevin founded Hearts. It was an interesting panel, and I thought why not blog about it…
I shared my rules for living. I have 8. Lots of people have more and some have fewer. Here are mine and they explain how I lead as well.
My Rules for Living:
- Know what I’m passionate about and know passion is only emotion.
- Know my purpose – why am I here.
- Know what I bring – my special skills.
- Come as I am – no good at being anyone else.
- Know the difference between my values and beliefs – I can be too sure.
- Have fun.
- Remember who I’m talking to – optimist (glass half full), pessimist (glass half empty), rationalist (glass twice as big), realist (glass is perfect).
- 30,000 foot level isn’t good. Maybe everyone reading this has flown in a plane and knows you can’t see the ground. The Lakota people believe we should have the eagle’s eye view, 2,000 feet. Eagles can see the curvature of the earth and the mouse it’s about to eat.
Below are some other examples I maybe should have shared but didn’t. Do you remember the Chilean Miners who were stuck. There are some great writings about them and how they survived. They shared the role of leading. One person took care of physical health; one took care of mental health; and one held them together as a team. They leveraged their gifts together and they always kept the whole person in mind. Great lessons for all of us.
Onward…
