"Everything rises or falls on leadership."
John Maxwell
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"The scope and scale of the ability to Lead is defined by the demonstration of the commitment to Serve."
J E Garr III

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'The leader of the past was a person who told,’ Peter Drucker once said. ‘The leader of the future will be a person who asks.’
Robert Kramer, director, exec ed programs, American University

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"Leadership is about change. It’s about taking people from where they are now to where they need to be. The best way to get people to venture into unknown terrain is to make it desirable by taking them there in their imaginations.”
Noel Tichy, "The Leadership Engine"

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Challenge Yourself to Grow...

It’s no secret that our Director has encouraged employees to participate in Professional Organizations, especially those that are somehow related to Conservation. As IT employees what has that meant to you? Let’s take a little quiz… How many of you currently belong to a Fish, Forest, Wildlife Professional Organization? Unfair? …cause we don’t work in a resource job…? If you believe that…then I need to open the bus doors for you. OK, let’s change the question then for you: How many of you belong to a professional IT organization? Hmmm not many hands there either…. Why not?

What do those organizations have to do with you and your job you say? Well, I’d offer that those groups offer OPPORTUNITY… the opportunity for growth, to challenge, to stretch you and your thoughts. Not to mention they provide an avenue for you to learn and to help further exposure to Conservation and the work we do. The more folks you know, the more chances you have to learn and espouse the good of Conservation. I’ll bet there are a good number of you who belong to PTO groups, hobby related clubs, women’s/men’s type clubs, etc…obviously you saw the value there to “enlist.” So what’s different about work or your desire to participate in groups that are related to it?

I’ve heard it stated publicly, that “if I’m supposed to be in a Conservation type organization, then it should be on the Dept. time and dime…” Sends a pretty clear message to me about the quality of Professional making that statement. Which camp are you in? Do you see the value in participating in Resource and IT related organizations? Do you see that you can add something to those groups and perhaps even glean some information that may be of value in the workplace too? I’d challenge each of you to give this some serious thought and see if there isn’t some group out there that would add value to what you do here at work ….and at home.

TAFN
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think that it's pretty tough to provide any kind of innovative ideas for the users when you don't know what the business is all about. We can read the mission statement, but how many of us can actually turn the statement around and tell what it says in actual MDC practices? I'm not sure I can do that and I spent time working in the resources! If we can't describe what the department actually does and understand a little about what our users really do, how can we take that step back and say "Oh, this idea/technology will make your work easier and you can get it done much faster?" And, also, if we don't understand a little about the work we are trying to improve, we definitely can't sell the new idea/technology to the user, because they won't believe us. We don't speak their language. We have to understand some of what goes on outside of our four office walls to be proactive and effective within our four office walls.

May 31, 2007 at 10:36 AM

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