Leading From Any Position I

Staff Name: Tracy Carroll
Workshop: Leading from Any Position I
Library System: Western Maryland Regional Library
Date(s): 4/8/09 & 4/9/09

Summary: This was a great workshop and I would recommend it to all staff. It was a very eye-opening experience. I've gone through other leadership workshop when I worked in my previous job, but they were all "business" focused. Kind of like this is what a "good leader" would do instead of this is how a "good leader" should interact. This was more about how we can relate to others and still lead and targeted problem-solving.

The one concept that we spent most of the first day on was about Enneagrams. If you ever taken Myers-Briggs, it's similar to that, but different. Once I looked at the different personality types and how different they are it gave me a new perspective on how to talk to people and how to motivate them considering what my personality type is. I'm the "Enthusiast", I need to be happy and plan fun things, contribute to the world and avoid pain. Who doesn't already know that about me?! It was funny to talk to other people who think the same way, here all this time I thought I was crazy!

The second day was focused more on problem solving. It taught a new concept for me of a disciplined model. It was a different approach to problem solving for me because it was more direct and exact, like staying focused on the task at hand and not getting distracted. I'm going to do better with that because sometimes I feel like I have 10 fires that I'm managing every day and I instead need to delegate more. Easier said than done, but at least now I recognize the challenge and know how to deal with it better.

Overall, it was an excellent seminar. Normally when I go to seminar I spend time thinking about what I could be doing at work, but this seminar I can honestly say that I was engaged and learning. It was a good learning experience for me.

Aha!s to Share: I know that everyone is different, but learning about the Ennegrams really helped me to understand others and how I should interact with them. Setting Groundrules was another concept that I think well help to get the most out of a meeting.

Questions to ask yourself:
1. Am I delegating what can be delegated?
2. Am I enabling people by not delegating or not explaining for their understanding?

Quotes that made an impression: Understanding the different states of consciousness - "Unconscious Incompetence", "Conscious Incompetence", "Conscious Competence", & "Unconscious Competence". That was a light-bulb moment for me and recognizing the difference between them and that some people are at different levels of change.