Category: leadership

creative process, creativity, leader, leadership

This just in: Fighting for what matters

Christa Avampato
Leadership is service.
Leadership is service.

“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” ~Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The creative process is always messy, always fraught with disagreement on some level. This is especially true when the stakes are high and there’s a lot of passion to fill the need that began the effort in the first place.

What I’m learning in my startup is that strong opinions need to be expressed with a lot of care and concern for the people who are hearing them, the people whom we ultimately want to win over and have support us. So often our point-of-view is so strong that we forget that it’s not so much about us voicing it as it is about it being received in the way we want it to be received. That takes finessing. We can’t lead if no one follows.

choices, leadership

Inspired: Break free from the boxes

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

“Stay away from those boxes,” said Alec Horinman, my leadership professor from my MBA program at Darden. It was a phrase he often repeated in class and one he recently sent to me when I wrote him to let him know how much his teaching influenced my career and life everyday. The boxes Alec refers to are: the boxes we put ourselves into, the boxes others put us into, and the boxes we put around others.

Boxes are tempting. They give us order, comfort, and predictability. With boxes, we can stop thinking because we’ve already passed judgement. But they’re dangerous. They close us off to possibility, change, and growth. I’d rather take comfort in possibility, change, and growth. They are the things we can really count on.

Put away the boxes. Better yet, burn them. You don’t need them, nor do you need anyone who’s intent on using them.

books, children, community, economy, education, family, leadership, legacy, literature, philanthropy, time

Beautiful: John Wood’s Incredible Mission to Create Room to Read for Millions of Kids Around the Globe

Christa Avampato

9780670025985_p0_v1_s260x420Ten years go, John Wood embarked on a courageous journey. He left his job at Microsoft for one simple reason: so that “children everywhere have access to literacy and books in their mother tongue from a young age.” Sound audacious to you? It did to Charlie Rose as well. “Every child,” Charlie repeated in an interview with John. “Every one, without exception,” John said.

It is that kind of resolve, focus, and elegant vision that I find so exhilarating and inspiring. As a nonprofit founder, fundraiser, and a consultant who works with a number of nonprofits, I also know how hard it is to identify and maintain. John will not be deterred. It is his commitment to the children of this world that has allowed Room to Read, his nonprofit, to open 10,000 libraries around the world in 10 years. 10,000. It is astonishing.

In 2007, John wrote the book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children. Today, his new book, Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy, goes on sale. It has valuable information for everyone who has ever cared about a cause or mission, for-profit, non-profit, or otherwise. It’s a story about the value of a dream and the determination to make it real. John talks about his all-star team, their site evaluation process, and what it truly means to work side-by-side with people you want to help in pursuit of a common goal. In equal parts, he gets down into the details about his fundraising and management philosophies and then shares his powerful emotions such as his misty-eyed moment when the 10,000th library opened in Nepal with his parents by his side.

John’s story is inspiring for all of the goodness he conveys though he is not shy about the hardships he, his staff, and the communities face. Global literacy is a battle in every sense. Moving into Africa was a particularly harrowing decision and an even more harrowing process. His team literally risked their lives to make it happen. In countries like Cambodia, 43% of grade-three students in his country could not read at an age-appropriate level. Statistics like this led Room to Read’s mission and activities to evolve. It wasn’t enough to build libraries and furnish them with books. First, they had to teach people to read. Without literacy programs, the libraries would be of zero value to half the population.

Once I cracked open this book, I couldn’t put it down. Nose pressed against the pages, I would look up and realize that hours had gone by. After a while, I stopped using my highlighter because I was highlighting every sentence. John Wood and Room to Read are paving the way toward a brighter future. Thank goodness he left Microsoft to change the world. With this book, I’m certain he will inspire many people to take up a cause that matters and make it their life’s work. And we will all be better off for it.

leader, leadership

Leap: Authenticity Leads the Way

Christa Avampato

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ~ John Quincy Adams

Go into any bookstore and you will find not just an entire shelf but an entire section of books on leadership. Business schools offer dozens of courses on how to be a leader. Hell, there are people who get their PhD in leadership and spend their entire lives studying and analyzing the field! What makes a good leader? Are leaders made or born? Are there certain leaders that are best for certain times and certain situations? And the list of questions goes on and on…

Here’s what I think – John Quincy Adams wrote everything we ever need to know about leadership. When we live our lives with authenticity, we give others permission to do the same. The rest is commentary.

business, leader, leadership

Beginning: Leading from the Middle

Christa Avampato

Middle Management is a dreaded term in the business world. It’s taken on a connotation of someone trapped in the middle executing a lot of actions that were defined by some Senior Leader. I am one of those people in the middle but here’s what I’m learning: being in the middle can be a curse or a blessing depending upon our attitudes.

In the middle, everything is happening. It’s where products and services get built and also where the big decisions are communicated. Someone in the middle has the unique position of translating between strategic objectives and tactical actions. To be effective in the middle, someone needs a wide variety of skills sets and the ability to build relationships up and down the corporate ladder. Middle management must have the ability to dream big and act upon small details. It’s art and science in equal proportion.

And while it is a position in which everyone could blame you for something going wrong, it’s also a position in which everyone can also celebrate you for things going well. And that celebration or blame has a lot to do with you. Can you trust your gut and drive a team forward with a vision while working side-by-side with them at all levels?

I believe you can.

books, leadership, learning

Beginning: The Lessons of Great Men

Christa Avampato

Forbes Magazine ran an excellent article this month by author and biographer Paul Johnson about the lessons learned from the lives of a handful of great men, and by great they mean well-known. Some of them made drastic mistakes that we can learn from. Others lived lives of nobility that we would do well to follow. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t include any women in the article; I’ll draft that one shortly.

I highly encourage you to read Johnson’s full article – it’s articulate and very well-organized, exactly what a biography should be. In the mean time, here’s the condensed version listing the great men he includes in the article and the lesson we should take from each of their lives:

Napoleon: “The important thing about success is knowing when to stop.”

Washington: “A successful general should not seek political power; he should wait to be called by the unanimous voice of the people.” [Johnson adds here that business people who seek political power would be wise to follow Washington’s example. Donald Trump, I think he’s talking to you.]

Churchill: “Never give up.”

Jesus: “People are infinitely more important than things.”

Socrates: “Never think you know all the answers. Wisdom lies not in possessing knowledge – which quickly becomes outdated – but in perpetually seeking it.”

Darwin: “Nothing is so small as to be insignificant. Success in business is getting countless small things right. The big things then naturally follow.” [This is my favorite part of the article!]

Mozart: “Start early.”

We have much to learn from the lives of others. Noted.

books, career, courage, encouragement, experience, leader, leadership

Beginning: You Have All the Power You Need

Christa Avampato

“New seed is faithful. It roots deepest in the places that are most empty…And so it came to be that over time this field, opened by burning – this field, fallow and waiting – drew just the right strangers, just the right seeds to itself. What is this faithful process of spirit & seed that touches empty ground and makes it rich again? Whatever we set our days to might be the least of what we do, if we do not understand that something is waiting for us to make ground for it, something that lingers near us, something that loves, something that waits for the right ground to be made so it can make its full presence known.” ~ Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I read Dr. Estes book Women Who Run with the Wolves many years ago. It remains a faithful guide all of these years later. Its pages are well-worn and yellowed. I regularly read its opening passage, particularly when I’m afraid and lonely. It’s stories quite literally began to shape the person I am today. They empowered me to realize that I can carve my own road toward a future of my design.

So it was with great excitement that I discovered that Dr. Estes had written another book, this one a novela entitled The Faithful Gardener: A Wise Tale About That Which Can Never Die. I read it in one sitting. Dr. Estes tells the tale of her Uncle who got to the end of his rope and wanted to take his power back. He set a field aflame as an invitation for new life to seed there.

In our lives, we collect clutter. Relationships that no longer serve. A job that no longer interests us. Commitments that no longer provide fulfillment. Slowly, drop by drop, our lives sometimes become something we never wanted them to be. This can leave us feeling paralyzed, regretful, and embarrassed.

This is exactly the myth that Dr. Estes dispels by sharing her Uncle’s story with us in The Faithful Gardner. One day last week, I arrived at a meditation class feeling powerless and through the meditation realized that the only one taking away my power was me. Dr. Estes explains this same principle in her book – we are all more powerful than we give ourselves credit for being.

This same idea reared its head over the weekend as I watched the documentary Stress: Portrait of a Killer. In several scientific studies, it has been found that if you perceive yourself at the bottom of the pecking order in life then your health and longevity are severely compromised. If you want to live a happy, healthier, longer life, it is critical that you find an outlet that allows you to feel in control of your own destiny. And that outlet doesn’t have to be your career or household. You could be the captain of your softball team, the leader of a charitable project, or a responsible dog owner. Somewhere in your life you need to have the opportunity to take the reigns, and if that’s not happening naturally in your life by some wonderful twist of fate, then you need to make it happen for yourself.

There’s no reason to play the victim. We all have the ability to build better lives, for ourselves and for those around us. You don’t need more schooling or experience or permission. It is yours for the taking. The only question is courage and confidence. Can you stand up and be counted? Will you make your voice heard? Can you release everything in your life that doesn’t benefit you for the sake of making room for something that truly matters? Your life literally depends on it.

business, change, creativity, leader, leadership

Beginning: Leadership and Boundaries

Christa Avampato

“We are our boundaries.” ~ George Simmel, Sociologist

I read this quote on a blog by one this blog’s supportive readers, bwinwnbwimusic. The quote showed up just as I was thinking about a project I’m currently involved with. The Universe is so wise; it knew exactly the encouragement I needed. The project is not fun – difficult partners and a difficult team to manage. I was nashing my teeth a bit over how to proceed. I felt like my efforts, and even my creative abilities, were blocked. I was stuck, and quickly time was flying by.

Meditating on boundaries
I decided to sit down, close my eyes, and really focus on this quote from George Simmel. If I feel blocked, there must be some boundary I am trying to cross over and that boundary doesn’t have any give. What is the boundary? What lesson is it teaching me? How do I either traverse it, or find an authentic way to incorporate it into my plan?

Finally, an answer surfaces
Yes, the partner on this project is difficult. Yes, there’s a leadership vacuum and a team that is not proactive. The boundary though, the real boundary that I was wrestling with, was me. I’m the one who needed to grow and change because I am the only individual I really have control over.

It starts and ends with me – that’s leadership
The partner was difficult because I had not set firm guidelines with them. There is a leadership vacuum and I will need to fill it. The team is not proactive and so I need to be more prescriptive with them. I have the ability to influence and if the project is to turn out in a way that I’m proud of, then it is up to me to find a way to motivate, inspire, and bring all the disparate pieces and parties together. In this way, I am learning that leadership requires the close examination and then acceptance of boundaries. It’s back to the oldage of once I accept myself as I am, then I find that I can change.

business, education, leadership, nonprofit

Beginning: Cathie Black, Donald Trump, and the Difficulty of Building Consensus

Christa Avampato

On the New York Times blog Room for Debate several experts batted around Cathie Black’s quick appointment and quick dismissal as the Chancellor of New York City public schools. Most of them recapped what I thought were less-than-insightful points-of-view. One response, by the Cato Institute’s Neal P. McCluskey, brought up a very intriguing idea that I’ve been unable to get out of my mind for the last 5 days since I read his article. “In business, you don’t need public consensus to get things done. In something run by democratic government, you do.”

Cathie Black’s short tenure
Cathie Black was an abundantly successful giant in the publishing industry. She’s smart, savvy, and courageous. Taking the position as the NYC Public Schools Chancellor took a tremendous amount of guts. I don’t think she was fully-prepared for the complexities of the job. And while I was disappointed and shocked by some of her very public and distasteful mishaps (i.e., joking that birth control could help the overcrowding problems in schools), I was also sorry that she seemed to get very little guidance from former Chancellors. After a number of years working in the corporate world and after spending an equal number of years in the nonprofit world (some of that time in a government role), I whole-heartedly support Mr McCluskey’s opinion that making it in business is far easier than making it in the nonprofit / public sectors because of the consensus factor. The difference is public scrutiny and approval. I would go so far as to say that if you name any of today’s Fortune 500 CEO as the Chancellor of NYC Public Schools, they would likely follow in Black’s footsteps.

I’ve never bought into this idea that a good business person would naturally be a good fit as the head of a public organization. Business experience and the skills that come along with it, are not the be all end all of leadership. If anything, they’re only one small piece of the leadership pie. A leader also needs charisma, ethics, public speaking ability, creative acumen, and passion for the cause. Most importantly they need to have empathy and compassion for the people working alongside them. It’s entirely possible to cross the chasm, and the skills of business and nonprofit management can certainly support one another. That has absolutely been the case in my career. It just isn’t a given, which brings me to my latest political heartache – the potential candidacy of Donald Trump for President of the United States. Heaven help us – he may be the only Republican candidate who I fear more than Sarah Palin.

The Donald
On the Today Show last week, Meredith Viera asked The Donald why he thought he was qualified to be President. The first words out of his mouth? “Well, I hate to even say this, Meredith, but I did build the #1 rated show on NBC.” Given NBC’s recent track record of shows, I wouldn’t consider this a difficult feat. (That’s changed a bit in the past few years with the brilliant 30 Rock, and others like Parks & Recreation. For a while, The Office seemed to be their only saving grace.) The Donald’s second comment was that he’s an excellent businessman and therefore qualified to run the United States. And he topped it all off with his now-infamous rant about how President Obama is not a real U.S. citizen. I started having flashbacks to the ignorant dark ages of GWB. I have two words for you, Donald – “Cathie Black”.

What business people can learn from the public sector
For too long, business skills have been considered the silver bullet. “If you can run a corporation, you can do anything.” Bologna. As a business person myself, I think that view is elitist and short-sighted. We have to stop thinking of the public sector as the second sector. It’s much more complex than business, more difficult to lead, and to be honest, has much further-reaching, long-lasting effects on our society. The Chancellor of NYC public schools is responsible for educating the future adults of New York City. The President of the United States is the leader of the free world as it stands today. Think about that for a moment. These are incredibly awesome scales of responsibility, and need to be treated with the reverence that they deserve. Consensus, my dear business colleagues, is a much more lofty and difficult goal than driving stock prices and the bottom line. Approach these types of jobs with humility – we are beginners in this space. We have a lot to learn.

books, leadership, meditation, yoga

Beginning: Deepak Chopra and The Soul of Leadership

Christa Avampato

This post is also available as a podcast on Cinch and on iTunes.

“You are the mighty ocean in the drop.” ~ Rumi

“Leaders need to be reminders to their people of their own dreams.” ~ Dr. Deepak Chopra

On Monday night I attended an event put on by Inc Magazine at the Morgan Stanley headquarters. Dr. Chopra has written a new book, The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness. Yes, it’s an insightful read if you’re a CEO though it’s equally as helpful for those who see themselves as the CEO of their own lives, which is to say it’s a book for everyone.

There was so much information delivered in the hour-long event that I’m still processing a good deal of it for future posts. The quotes above are the ones that keep coming to the surface of my thoughts. It’s so easy to just imagine that we are only one small soul is a vast sea. Rumi, in his endlessly comforting words, says no, you, just as you are, have within in you as much potential as that vast sea. Your contributions, thoughts, ideas, and dreams matter a great deal. Your dreams, give rise to the dreams of others, and when living your dreams, you are inspiring others to do the same. Like passing a candle, your light gives light to others.

As Dr. Chopra continued to talk about the need for a wisdom-based society and the need to return to our role as human beings instead of human doings, he advocated for meditation and yoga. He talked about the need to stop the inner dialogue so that the wise creativity within us will spontaneously rise to the surface. The wisdom we need already lies within us if only we will quiet the mind long enough to hear it. This idea made me see meditation and yoga not as just healthy rituals, but as a necessary practice for reaching our own potential.

The idea I kept returning to was one of connection. We are now all linked across oceans and continents in a closer, more intimate way than we have ever been before. We will only grow closer as technology becomes more sophisticated and wide-spread. How we run our lives and our communities has great impacts in every other corner of the world. “No karmic debt ever goes unpaid. It is the only perfect accounting system,” Dr. Chopra said. How we treat each other, inspire each other, and encourage each other could mean a better world for all of us. And if we don’t nuture one another, then the consequences are dire. Our connection to one another will be our demise or our savior, and that outcome is largely determined by us.

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.