"Wow. What are you doing here?"
That was the first question said out loud when people saw me at our job fair. Most CEOs don't show up to a job fair. They ask to hear how it went later.
I got a call last week to be a reference for an Executive Director stepping into a new role at a Housing Authority. In our industry, that's not unusual. But the board asked me: "๐๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ง๐๐ฐ ๐๐ฑ๐๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ข๐ซ๐๐๐ญ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ, ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐?"
Most think leadership is about learning to read the room. And that's somewhat true. But it's also realizing the room is reading you too.
At 12 years old, I was living in a tent.
Not thinking about housing policy.
Just trying to get through the day.
Instead of opening the session with accomplishments, awards, or job titlesโฆ we started with where we are struggling.
I'm still talking and thinking about the WAHN event.
One. Week. Later.
And this moment is one of the many reasons why.
Itโs easy to talk about values when things are going well.
Itโs much harder and much more revealing to see which values people still recognize in each other during difficult seasons.
The peony doesnโt bloom instantly.
It has a long growth cycle and then blooms dramatically.
