Leading Others: January 2008 Archives
Well, it happened - My "brown nosing" session with Roy Crowne happened yesterday, and all in all it went pretty well. Frustratingly, he seemed to have some kind of precognition of the questions I was going to ask, as he generally started answering them (in a very in-depth way) before I'd even finished each question.
I actually recorded the audio of the whole thing, and I was sorely tempted to upload it to this site, as it is actually highly stimulating, but although he gave me permission to record our time, I never actually asked him whether I could make it public, so I guess I probably shouldn't. However, if you really want to hear what he had to say (and if you suggested a question that I should ask, there will be an answer there somewhere), then either drop me an email begging for a copy, or hold on a few days and check back as I need to write up the whole thing as a character study for MLS anyway.
For now, I'll leave you with what I consider to be the best answer to a question that he gave...
Q: Being the leader of a big organisation like YFC, how do you avoid switching into "leader" mode in you personal & social life?
A: I don't!! I'm a leader all the time - that's who I am - it annoys my family a lot, but that's me!!
Absolute Genius!!
I actually recorded the audio of the whole thing, and I was sorely tempted to upload it to this site, as it is actually highly stimulating, but although he gave me permission to record our time, I never actually asked him whether I could make it public, so I guess I probably shouldn't. However, if you really want to hear what he had to say (and if you suggested a question that I should ask, there will be an answer there somewhere), then either drop me an email begging for a copy, or hold on a few days and check back as I need to write up the whole thing as a character study for MLS anyway.
For now, I'll leave you with what I consider to be the best answer to a question that he gave...
Q: Being the leader of a big organisation like YFC, how do you avoid switching into "leader" mode in you personal & social life?
A: I don't!! I'm a leader all the time - that's who I am - it annoys my family a lot, but that's me!!
Absolute Genius!!
I spent this last week at the National YFC staff Conference, and it's been a great time.
While I was there, the MLS group met up for an hour or so, expecting to catch up and have a social experience together. As it turned out, the leaders had other ideas up their sleeves...
Basically, we were set the task of holding two 25 minute "meetings" - one to discuss the future of the national conference, and one to decide on a 5 year plan for the YFC sports teams. That bit sounded quite easy. The hard bit was that we each had to take a turn in Chairing the meeting for 5 minutes.
Now normally I'm quite happy leading meetings, and especially ones where you're discussing big "vision" type ideas, but to chair just a small part of a meeting where the basic line of discussion has already been set by another "chairman", and all that without any pre-thought-through agenda, was quite tough and frustrating.
So, I spent a large part of our time trying to do my "pre-meeting prep" and by the time I actually worked out what the thing was that we REALLY needed to be talking about, my chance at chairman had passed and we we're summing our discussions.
And what did I learn? Well, primarily that knowing what you want to talk about before a meeting is paramount. But I did also come to realise that chairing a meeting isn't about having great ideas - it's about setting an arena for others to have great ideas and encouraging "every-person participation"
So, if YOU have meetings that you attend where your heart is really to think creatively and problem solve, you need to find someone else to be the chairperson. Simple huh?
While I was there, the MLS group met up for an hour or so, expecting to catch up and have a social experience together. As it turned out, the leaders had other ideas up their sleeves...
Basically, we were set the task of holding two 25 minute "meetings" - one to discuss the future of the national conference, and one to decide on a 5 year plan for the YFC sports teams. That bit sounded quite easy. The hard bit was that we each had to take a turn in Chairing the meeting for 5 minutes.
Now normally I'm quite happy leading meetings, and especially ones where you're discussing big "vision" type ideas, but to chair just a small part of a meeting where the basic line of discussion has already been set by another "chairman", and all that without any pre-thought-through agenda, was quite tough and frustrating.
So, I spent a large part of our time trying to do my "pre-meeting prep" and by the time I actually worked out what the thing was that we REALLY needed to be talking about, my chance at chairman had passed and we we're summing our discussions.
And what did I learn? Well, primarily that knowing what you want to talk about before a meeting is paramount. But I did also come to realise that chairing a meeting isn't about having great ideas - it's about setting an arena for others to have great ideas and encouraging "every-person participation"
So, if YOU have meetings that you attend where your heart is really to think creatively and problem solve, you need to find someone else to be the chairperson. Simple huh?
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