Leading People From the Middle: The Power of Personal Stories

I recently had an incredible opportunity to listen to, network with, and learn from some of the brightest colleagues I have in my field from across the country. We spent a powerful week together at the University of Georgia campus discussing what it means to continue as a Higher Ed/Campus Housing professional and the sorts of day-to-day concerns and responsibilities that will fill our weeks, should we be fortunate enough to continue our careers in this unique and wonderful field. There were eye-opening sessions on budgets, politics, administrative and assessment methods, professional standards, and the like. Naturally, I wrote pages and pages of notes that I’m only now having the chance to revisit and regain the impact of the words my colleagues and new mentors offered. The interesting thing I've found about experiences such as these, is that when there is an abundance of epiphany-like moments it is difficult to reign them all in. Sort of like if you were standing underneath a waterfall for a week… you’re going to be affected by an awful lot of water, but you’re only going to be able to use the water you can carry at that moment. My point is that only a small portion of what was learned over the last week is implementable or usable in a specific context right now, but I’m trying to hold on to all of the bits (or nuggets) that were provided so they can be used in the right place at the right time in the future.

So a few of the immediate bits of gold:

• People. People are the organization, they are the reason it succeeds and the reason it can fail. The connections and relationships that exist between the people of an organization make it a wonderful place to spend your waking hours or a tough place to spend your waking hours. If you've lost sight of the importance of the people in your organization, you've lost sight of the purpose of your leadership.
•  Each person has his or her story. A person’s story is unique and has shaped his or her values, insights, actions, reactions, needs, motivations, and communications – really everything that they bring to the organization every day. By taking the time to listen and value someone’s entire story we not only express our investment in him or her, but we also have a much better starting point with which to interact with that person for any other purpose in the future.
• This concept was highlighted on my drive to work today via the This American Life podcast – Plan B. In it, a woman (Starlee) was sharing her desire to share and listen to a new friend’s story; the way that she had when she was growing up and spending the time to get into all of the details that made her who she was. Starlee provided the brilliant insight that as adults, we struggle making connections because we don’t take the time to truly listen to one another’s stories any more.
• You’re always leading from the middle – you will report to someone, people will report to you, and you will have collaborators working along side you. This is the reality for the rest of your work life. We might think that once we get to move up a level, it will be that much easier to accomplish the tasks we want, or point the organization the “right” direction.

     Bringing it All Together

These three brilliant insights into leadership came crashing together for me as I thought about Ronald Heifetz’s approach to leadership that he coins Adaptive Leadership. Working as an adaptive leader, one focuses less on acquiring specific skills, traits, characteristics, or creating visions, and works to move many people from within various points in an organization to focus on their values, face conflict, and ultimately solve complex and messy problems that are inhibiting progress.

So where it all comes together is that as a middle manager (which I will be for the rest of my career), I will always be practicing adaptive leadership. I will at multiple times be pulling together a boss, boss’ boss, team members, supervisees, and other people (not stakeholders – they’re people!) in an organization to look at some sort of problem that exists in order to move forward. To move forward I will need the knowledge of each person’s values, and the access to these values is embedded in the personal story.

Personal stories take time to listen to, to share, and to fully understand. During my time last week we were able to devote hours to the stories of our cluster-group (four people) – but the reality is that in a typical environment we’re not going to have large chunks of time, and stories will be pieced together over stages and repeated interactions. I’ve been a big believer for a long time that the amount of time you can spend on something directly relates to the amount you care about whatever you’re spending your time on. It is our most precious resource. The question and commitment I’m taking away from this reflection is to explore the ways I give my time to the people in my organization, and how can I use my interactions to learn more about the stories that exist and are being created around me. With that said – it’s time to stop typing and start listening!