Have You Written Your Passionography?

I've been asked about my passionography assignment and if I would share it.  The passionography is the result of self-examination and surveys of others about yourself.  The following are what served as inputs to ponder while compiling a passionography:

• Understanding of your personal strengths
• Your personal skills
• What is important to you
• Strongly held beliefs that are aspects of your personal faith/values
• Survey of what others think that you feel is of importance
• Survey of others of how they view you as a leader

From: faithoncampus.com

With all of that input, you then begin to formulate your own personal passionography with respect to your leadership outlook.  As you will notice, the first paragraph is what I used as input into my leadership manifesto.  This is a very personal document and serves as a compass to revisit in order to reset my direction.  

Think of the passionography as saying, "This is who and why I am"  The leadership manifesto says, "This is where I'm going and how I'm going to go about it"  The two together are like a map and a compass - they work together to guide you on your journey.

If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to comment or shoot me an email at jgriffin@seniorsguide.net.

My Passionography

 Importance of Leadership

 Everyone is a leader in some way, but not everyone accepts the responsibility of leadership.  Leaders influence and inspire – in both negative and positive ways.  When we accept the responsibility to be influential and inspirational to others, it is then that we are stepping out of our comfort zone of complacency and self-absorbed egos to put our focus on others.  How can one possibly think they can influence someone else without first understanding those they desire to influence?

 Personal Impact of Leadership

 I have been blessed by having influential leaders in my life.  Mrs. Cain, my high school chemistry teacher that told me that I was good at a lot of things, but she’d love to see me narrow the focus to be great at a few things.  Tony Gossett, my first mentor, made me memorize chapters 6-8 of the book of Romans, to understand human struggle and the opportunity to have quality in life through a real and growing relationship with God.  John Yancey, my second mentor, challenged me to write out every verse in the book of Proverbs that was related to the use of our lips, tongue, mouth, or spoken word teaching me to power of life, death, success and failure that our words can have on ourselves and others. Michael Woolstrum, my current mentor (at various times in the past 12 years) has taught me the value of selfless living, high work ethic, and focus on others.

The life and legacy that I see in these people has influenced and inspired me to want to grow in personal and spiritual maturity.  I could only hope that my life can influence and inspire at least one person as much as they’ve done for me.

 Personal Leadership

 I love God and love people, but understand that many do not feel that same way.  I’ve met many people who “don’t know and don’t care” about God, but seem to have a love and care for humanity.  Meanwhile, I know others who love God, but somehow miss the mark when dealing or caring for people.  I am not implying that my love for God and people is perfect, but I’d like to think that I am intentional and authentic when relating to another person.

I want “to leave the world a better place”.  I want to achieve great things and help others do the same or surpass those achievements.  I want people to have a choice to know my God in a real and personal way.  I want to help people discover what makes them “come alive” and find ways to incorporate that into their life’s journey.

What does this have to do with leadership?  Everything.

Jim Elliot, a missionary killed in Ecuador while trying to evangelize the Waodani Indians, said “Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”  (Shadow of the Almighty, by Elisabeth Elliot)  For some, this quote takes on the meaning of bold, in-your-face Bible thumping evangelism.  For me, the quote takes on a different meaning when paired with this quote often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt: “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care”.

I do not want to simply be a road sign declaring how many miles one has traveled or how much farther they have to go.  I want to be a tour guide for many on this journey called life, providing maps of navigation through the tough terrain of disappointment and grief and celebrating on the summits of the mountains of blessing and peace.

There is nothing more rewarding to me, than to see the miraculous change in a person’s eyes when they’ve encountered God in a real and personal way.  My hope is that intentional servant leadership and success will open the doors that will permit me to introduce others to my creator and the ultimate servant leader, Jesus Christ.

What are you passionate about? Please share.

Leadership Manifesto

As noted in the last post, the first semester is over and today begins the next chapter.  We ended the leadership series by writing our first leadership manifesto.  This is the culmination of introductory exercises in self-discovery of strengths, values, passion, and the journey.

I am sharing my leadership manifesto to allow those who know me or interact with me to hold me accountable to these values and declarations.  You have complete permission to ask me how I'm doing at any time with respect to these declarations and to provide loving correction if you see me veering off course.

 Introduction

Everyone is a leader in some way, but not everyone accepts the responsibility of leadership.  Leaders influence and inspire – in both negative and positive ways.  When we accept the responsibility to be influential and inspirational to others, it is then that we are stepping out of our comfort zone of complacency and self-absorbed egos to put our focus on others.  How can one possibly think they can influence someone else without first understanding those they desire to influence?

As I have reviewed all of the previous papers that we were required to write for this seminar series, I’ve pondered what I am now to do given what I’ve said is important, given what I view is leadership, and given the journey I’ve traveled so far.  This manifesto will summarily declare these things and provide my personal “marching orders”, answering my recurring question, “What am I supposed to do with this?”

My Leadership Manifesto

Intentionality Matters:

Nothing of great value in our lives happens by accident.  I will not accomplish great things, cultivate deep relationships, or gain in-depth knowledge by waiting for those things to happen.  I must live with intentionality and purpose.  The foundation for my manifesto must be based on intentionality.  Every decision, every activity, every moment must be as intentional as possible.  Based on what I’ve discovered about myself in this leadership series, I am daily revisiting the question, “Am I now who I have always been or is this just a mask I’ve donned for the theatre of life?”   I have to be real with myself.  I cannot just exist – I must live.

Trust Matters: 

To effectively lead, I must walk on a foundation of trust.  Trust provides freedom and empowerment.  Trust gives me the freedom to control the way I conduct myself with others and allows me to not worry about the reactions of others.   Trust empowers me to be intentionally vulnerable as I build authentic relationships, but diplomatically bold when facing conflict or issues that need to be addressed.

Growth Matters: 

"Don't be afraid of going slowly, be afraid of standing still."
Eastern Proverb

We’ve all heard that we’re either growing or we’re dying. I am committed to personal growth – spiritually, intellectually, and physically. 

I will intentionally seek God daily through praying, reading, and journaling introspectively to gain insight, wisdom and discernment.  If I am to be a “light” in this world, I need to understand that every light has a source.  Daylight’s source is from the sun – John’s light source is from the Son of God.

I will intentionally seek out mentors who will challenge me to see different perspectives, to strengthen relevant skills, to aid in self-discovery, and to expand my sphere of influence.  

I will intentionally pursue resources that will challenge and help me to grow intellectually.  This will come in the form of mentors, relationships, online reading, books, classes, and seminars.

I will intentionally block out time, weekly, for regular exercise to provide an outlet of stress release and to stay healthy and active for as long as I live.

"A leader who develops people ADDS - a leader who develops leaders, MULTIPLIES!" -John Maxwell.   “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies within us while we live.” -Norman Cousins.

I am not just committed to personal growth, but also to encouraging growth in others.  I will be a servant leader to my wife, extended family, and friends.  I will be a cultivator of authentic revelation and discovery in each relationship.  I will intentionally encourage each relationship to discover their gifts/strengths and incorporate them into their personal journey.  I will intentionally be discerning in my relationships and always look for ways to add value and enrich others lives.

Today Matters:

“Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future; faith is the courage to dance to it today.” -Peter Kuzmic. 
“Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” -Doug Ivester.

The choices I make today sow into the person I will become tomorrow.  I will make the most of each day while creating margin in my life for a balanced approach to the declarations of this manifesto.  I will continue to dream, but I will act on those dreams today.

Chapter one is now finished......

image from behavioradvisor.com

Chapter one of the MBA journey is now complete. Five chapters to go!

Last night, we had our final class in the first leadership series and we took our economics final exam.  Amazing that 15 weeks have flown by so quickly!

Our time in leadership concluded with another world cafe.  As people shared their ideas, I was enjoying listening to those that normally do not speak up in class.  I was amazed at the vulnerability, transparency and authenticity from which people spoke - sharing part of their journey or just sharing what they're wrestling with right now.  Last night's class time began with four learning teams, but I felt that by the end of our class time, we were finally one big cohort team.

image from winterpark.gov

This journey we're all on together has challenged me to intentionally pause during the day and attempt to consider different approaches to my day, challenges, encounters, relationships, etc.  We all find ourselves in the weeds of our work, the tyranny of the urgent, or just in the moment all too often.  But during the intentional pauses of my day, I'm visualizing getting on a hot air balloon to rise above the madness into the peaceful and quiet solitude of the heights.  From there, I am finding clarity of thought, reminders of purpose, renewal of energy, and new perspectives.

We also concluded our economics class with our final exam.  Afterwards, some had gathered just down the hall from the class to talk.  Matt and Ramon convinced us to go to undergraduates' end of year "Midnight Madness" where they served free breakfast to all the students.  It was great just hanging out with others from our cohort as we end this first semester.

So, chapter one is closed.  I know the elements of chapter two, but what will ultimately be written in this next chapter is yet to be seen.  The thought of that is both scary and exciting, but I'm ready to turn the page and keep reading!

Week 13: Passionography and Critique

I left very early last Tuesday morning to drive to MS to visit with my mother.  About an hour into the journey I discovered that I had left my computer at home, so I was not able to get a jump start on my leadership assignment.  This week we had to list our strengths, values, skills, and enlist others to provide us with a list of what our top 5 things they most important to us.  Before I left for MS, I sent out my requests to friends, family, and employees for their feedback on those top 5 things and also requested a short paragraph on how they view my leadership. More on that shortly.

Normal vision

Same view with macular degeneration

Forgetting my computer was at first irritating, but in some ways liberating, as it helped me to spend much more time with Mom on this trip.  This was a tough trip for me as I could tell that my mother has declined since my last visit.  She has dementia and macular degeneration.  The short-term memory loss, declination of her eyesight, and recent changes in her medications have made her more anxious - which is understandable.  It's hard to understand what a person sees with macular degeneration, but I found a good example that helps me understand it better as shown in these pictures from Wikipedia.  In the past, Mom relied heavily on my father to keep her medications straight, to help her navigate when in public, and even cover up her memory issues.  With Dad's passing, my brother keeps her medications straight, but she is not wanting to leave her home much because of her sight and her memory issues.  Thankfully, I was able to convince her to go out to dinner one evening and on another day to visit with her sisters (one of whom has advanced Alzheimer's).  All in all, I'm glad I was able to make the trip and have some quality time with her.  Time went by so fast that I missed visiting her sweet sweet neighbors that are the same as family to us, so I'll have to be more intentional on my next visit.

While in MS, Thursday evening, I had a conference call with my learning team where we discussed our Economics assignment.  We had to critique another learning team's paper and be prepared to turn in that critique this Monday night.  We struggled collectively with the balance of not wanting to be too critical of the other team's paper, while making sure that we were objectively holding them accountable to the criteria that we all had to write our papers.  It was a very productive call and I felt compelled to share with the team just how much I genuinely appreciated them.  For the next few minutes, the rest of the team was sharing with each other their same sentiments.  It was a very nice ending to our phone call that evening.

From: kamyabology.com

Upon my return to Austin, I had to catch up on the work that I couldn't do without my computer.  As I began to read through all of the feedback that others had provided for the passionography assignment, I was humbled and appreciative by what I read.  I found this assignment to be one of the more difficult papers that I've had to write so far.  My main struggle was making sure that I would be true to myself and write exactly how I felt and thought in the paper rather than what I would think is expected.  After mulling this over for almost 5 hours (yes, seriously), I came to realization that there were no expectations on this assignment (except to complete it).  I, then committed to write straight from my heart and see where the paper goes.  After all, this class isn't intended to mold us into any one particular shape, but rather, to allow us to discover who we really are individually and then free us to live it out loud.  An hour and half later, the paper was finished.

This evening's leadership class was quite introspective.  We were put into groups of three with other team members and that allowed us to get to know a couple other people that we don't normally interact with regularly.  We took the time to write out specific milestones in our life that were pivotal moments for us on our leadership journey.  I was astounded and inspired by the transparency the two people in my group.  We each ran out of time while telling our pivotal moment, so I hope to hear the rest of their story soon.  As exhausted as I was physically going into this evening, I find that I really come to life in this class.  I absolutely love this class!

Week 3: It's Getting Very Real

Preparation:
Very tough week of schedules, not to mention allergies.  Three debate papers and one current events paper due for marketing and a group problem set due for Economics.  Much more of my study time was spent on economics.  I tried to "clock out" on Tuesday and Wednesday, but know now that can never happen again.  It was hard trying to do all the reading and the assignments from Thursday - Monday.

Reflections and Expecations:
This was really a tough week.  Working in teams can be completely exhausting.  I love my learning team and appreciate them more and more each week as we learn more about each other.  But, it's that getting to know and trust one another's work that is completely draining.  Personalities, work schedules, backgrounds, learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses all come in to account as you try to unify as a team.
I'm having high hopes that light bulbs will come on this week on some of the economics material.

Class Time:
Marketing was great this week, but also overwhelming.  Both group projects have now been assigned as well as our individual projects.  The sheer amount of work required to pull those off is inconceivable at the moment, but starting is the hardest.  Hopefully, once we get started the projects will come together quickly.  Starting this week!
In Economics, we did a thorough review of Chapter 3 and lots of great questions from the cohort.  I am happy to say that the light bulbs did light up tonight and I'm starting to get a grasp.  This is thanks to Dr Estrada's unique way of walking through the material.  Very practical and applicable.  It should also be noted that he also is very good at learning people's names.  Last week, he was still confirming people's names as he addressed them, but was right on everyone's names tonight.

Personal Thoughts:
The team leader for the week did a great job of trying to get the week scheduled out.  We picked a team name and even created a logo.  We are putting "Learning Team 4" behind us and will now be called Paradigm Shift.  While that may seem silly, it proved to help give ourselves a short commercial break to do something fun that we all had input.  Tonight as I write this, I realize just how completely exhausted I am from the week and from sitting 5 hours (1 hour with the team and 4 hours in class) learning marketing and economics.  I've also had several people ask why I chose to go back to school for this MBA.  The only way I can answer that is to let you read my admissions essay.  I tried to make that as transparent and real as possible.  So, I will post as a part of my profile this week.