We Can't Preach Value

“A vision cannot be established in an organization by edict or by the exercise of power or coercion” (Bennis & Nanus, 1985)

            Vision is the driving force behind leaders. Without vision, a leader is not a leader. Leaders need to know where the company or organization is headed. They must peer into the future, make predictions, and put their organization on a path to be successful.  Vision is essential to a leader's worth.  Probably the one thing a leader does not want to hear is that they lack vision.

            Leaders attain vision through many lenses.  They will look at a history of an organization, the goals for the organization, and where they see themselves in the future.  The leader must align their vision with the mission of an organization. An effective leader cannot force their values on an organization, but work within the organization to effectively achieve its goals.

            Using coercion in the vision process can lead to devastating results.  The effective leader needs to communicate their vision at the beginning.  The leader will also need to assure that their vision is aligned with the mission of the organization.  You cannot have a leader who wants to do one thing, but it does not fit within the organization mission.  Finally, the leader must not be afraid to make a mistake.  Mistakes are just another way of doing things.

            Power can be used to make decisions, but this is probably not the most effective way. A leader would like to have most of the company/organization on board.  Yes, everyone will not agree, but as long as the leader has communicated their vision effectively, people will follow.  The use of power should be used with caution.  Not effectively presenting a vision will seem like a lack of leadership.

            The use of power and coercion in the vision or decision making process is not the best way to lead.  The one thing a leader cannot afford to do, is not have their managers on the same page as them.  Yes, the leader will be task with making decisions that at times may not be the most popular to digest.  This is where the communication aspects and self-awareness will kick in for the leader. Power and coercion should not be used, instead communication and awareness should be fostered.

Rueben A. Ingram

Argosy           

Thinking Outside the Cereal Box

“Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of and since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”

            -Viktor Frankl

For those of you not from Hawaii we have several versions of cockroaches of all different sizes and shapes. On of my favorites is the B-52 cockroach with which I’ve had several encounters throughout my 8 year blissful stay in Kailua, Oahu.  My first encounter was a warm sunny day as I dried off from my long day at the beach.  I had just come back from my swim in the pristine turquoise waters and was relaxed from reading a wonderful book about happiness. I truly enjoyed the clean beaches, the smell of the salt sprayed air, and the feeling the warm sand caked to my skin. I was whistling and excited from my lovely day as I was rinsing off the sand at home.  I reached for my towel to dry off my face.  As I was drying, I felt something engage in a sprint from my shoulder, to my ankle and off the left side of my body.   I looked just in time to see the giant cockroach scurrying off my leg. 

No one had warned me about the colonies of roaches that at times even come out during the day. Although, I was well aware that cockroaches spread disease as my mother and many others had passed this information to me through time. I did not want to smash it with my shoe because I was afraid it might take my shoe and slap me back- it was so big. I normally do not kill bugs, cockroaches and mosquito’s being the exceptions; so I grabbed the can of raid and sprayed it. Due to the lack of ventilation, I inhaled some of the chemicals which immediately numbed my throat and mouth.  I watched the cockroach hiss and experience what seemed to be an inhumane death.  In that moment, I felt incredibly bad to have made something suffer.  Recently, I researched the roles of cockroaches in our ecosystem, disease spread by these pests, and the effects of chemicals on their systems as well as humans.

            In my research, I could not find record of direct transmission of any disease from a cockroach to a human being. There is record that they leave feces trails in order to navigate. This could lead scientists to infer that our little friends could spread disease to humans.  Let me point out that cats stand in their litter boxes and walk on the counters and we are not eradicating them for spreading disease in our homes.  I found many fascinating facts about cockroaches that you may be interested in reading.  I was able to see many different points of views on which seemed like such an insignificant topic.  

  I found a problem with my ability to think outside what I read on a cereal box or hear from trusted resources.  I am working on changing the way I think about the world around me.  I am learning to find the significance in everything.  Because when I make uneducated decisions like using Raid in a unventilated room to kill a cockroaches. In another perspective, I was choosing to inhale poison that I did not understand in order to kill something that I knew nothing about.  I believe this type of thinking is the same ignorance that caused Hiroshima and the Holocaust. 

In the Holocaust, people stated that they had no idea that heinous actions were occurring.  People did not know because they did not educate themselves of the truth.  They did not seek to understand the reality occurring to their countrymen and women.  I am not saying that we should save the cockroaches and ban bug spray. I am saying every time we do something, no matter of insignificant the action may seem to take a moment to be completely aware of what we are doing.  It is our ability to think from different angels even in the smallest or what seem to be most insignificant situations.  I believe Victor Frankl warned us that it is our aversion to the truth and the lack of desire to truly understand any given circumstance that leads to much demise.  Dr Frankl concludes his book with a startling quote “Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of and since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”

Amber Stubbs
Honolulu, 2011

Burning is Learning

What is to give light must endure burning.

            -Victor Frankl-

            It was the last day of math in which I was calculating no more numbers for life!  This is a lie I tell myself even today.  Algebra II was the course and because it was algebra II it was a cold, stormy, and dark night.  I walked in the dreary room which resembled a mental hospital thinking that I should be able to pass this class with the intense effort I had put into it through the tutoring sessions and marathon study sessions I had endured the entire semester.  The teacher handed out the test, I took a deep breath, reached into my bag, and I pulled out my pencil silently saying to myself:  “you can do it” in my most sarcastic Adam Sandler voice. I understood the importance of securing the happiness in math class.  I reached down for my calculator and my heart dropped into my stomach.  It was not in my bag where I had left it?  Panic set in because I know that my professor would have no mercy.   

I reported this news to the professor and he stated “Well that is too bad, Amber, it looks like you will be taking this test without a calculator.Maybe next time you will listen when the professor tells you to be prepared”.  There was no possible way I could have passed the test without a calculator. I made an attempt to answer the questions but failed.  I failed the course!  I was devastated!  My dream was to finish a doctorate degree and yet the my degree plan showed, on that day, that I would never even finish my AA.  I was 19 years old, living on my own with no financial support from my family, and I had to figure out how I was going pay for a doctoral degree when I could not pass or pay for math. Everything seemed hopeless as I drove home that night and it burned.  I found that my roommate gave my calculator to a friend to borrow for his test.  You see, he could not afford a calculator so my roommate felt that I was so much smarter and his friend needed it more.   

             It is now eleven years later and I am nearing the end of my doctorate course work.  Anyone can guess that I did find a way to pay for school, passed a few more classes, and failed my way to successful moments multiple times. As I write this blog, I am taking a course that involves math, quantitative statistics. Thanks to all my repeated failures in Algebra class and life I am doing okay, but it does not lessen the burn and fear that I may fail or am not adequate to sit at the table with my fellow students.  So where am I going with all this you ask? What does a candle burning and then giving light have to do with some blogster's math story?” 

The point is that in order to achieve anything we have to burn or fail in order to succeed. I know you’ve heard in many times but did you understand it fully?   It is inevitable, but not successive.  The tricky part is that I always thought at some point the burning or failing would stop and I would give light.  I realize now that this is false and socialized thinking because anything that is giving light is currently burning.  Success and failure always occur at the same time, if we choose success just as light and burning occur simultaneously. I’ve found that, when I do things that matter, life does not get easier. I have not found a way to make the burning more tolerable other than giving up.  When I give up, my cognitive development is unchanged; I make very little transformation or development in my mental or spiritual progression as a human being. So I guess what I am trying to say to those of you that are at the end of your ropes is:

 “if you ain’t burnin, you ain’t learnin.”

Amber Stubbs
2011

True Freedom...and the Arrival of Maturity

Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies a place of our growth and freedom.

           

            -Victor Frankl-

            During an accusatory confrontation not too long ago, I realized that the only thing that separates a leader from anyone else is their response.  A leader chooses to see the other’s point of view and understands not only the verbal complaint but the root of the problem.  Next, a leader chooses not to be right, but to make an effort to solve any problem with compassion and opportune timing.  Sometimes, compassion means saying or doing something that could hurt a person or even damage a relationship.  Or, it may mean that the leader may have to seem wrong for a time in order to help a person grow. 

Being a leader requires the acceptance of being wrong when the leader is wrong and even wrong when the leader is right.  To clarify, I used to believe that in order to be respected and viewed as credible by my peers, employees, volunteers, colleagues, and employers, I had to be the best at everything.  This included proving to others that I was intelligent enough to participate in conversations through thorough analysis based on research, self improvement, and working harder than anyone.  I recently realized what my perfection seeking communicated to others, that being right and the best was most important to me.  

I realized that even in the smallest conversation it is better to look for themes in each person’s dialog than enter into the conversation itself. Every moment we are communicating something; this rings true: the most important thing is to communicate that we care. It is not about understanding what people are verbally saying it is about understanding people.  Leadership is about looking for the underlying message that each person unconsciously communicates.  When a leader does this, he or she automatically enters the person’s reality and communicates that he or she cares.  It is the impression that the leader imprints on the person’s unconscious mind that matters.   In the constant dialog of the human mind is where conclusions are ultimately drawn.  Long after the group or individual conversation, situation, meeting, or workday ends the multiple conclusions that matter have yet to be made.  

Leadership is about laying down ego for the greater good.  I struggle with this on a daily bases because I truly want to be the best person I can be so that I may make a difference in this world. However, being the best is not what makes a difference in this world.   It is about seeing the most important thing in life: the personal growth of all individuals.

 A leader does not care to be right or wrong, but sees every response and situation as an opportunity for growth.  A leader sees a bad circumstance as an opportunity for immense positive change and paradigm shifts because a leader has the ability to take even the most heinous circumstance and convert it into something more.  A leader is able to do this because of the realization that everything is a collective action and each individual must feel cared for and have purpose. To conclude, it is the leader's job to help people find their greater purpose without the person knowing they've been helped. 

Amber Stubbs

This Is Just Not "the Way It Is"

I recommend the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility.

            -Victor Frankl-

            I find myself in frequent discussions about government and personal responsibility.   During a business leadership course, I found myself in another government responsibility discussion. The conversation concerned the movement of Hawaii’s homeless population to an alternate place in order to preserve the reputation of Hawaii’s aloha for APEC. I was appalled that the government was taking away what very little the Hawaii homeless have in order to display the image of aloha for leaders from abroad. I thought if we all really lived aloha we would not have homelessness.

From that day forward, I have decided to shift my thought process to personal responsibility.  If I am not taking personal responsibility for the topics I am concerned about; how can I expect the government or anyone else to take responsibility?   I have the freedom to take personal responsibility to help the homeless and yet, I don't.

Why? Because, that which falls within the circle of our personal responsibility is so hard to recognize.

            With freedom, each of us should realize that there is giant wave of responsibility that comes with the benefits. According to Webster’s dictionary, liberty is the quality or state of being free. If the homeless are living in the Hawaii, are they not free to populate any area at any time as part of their rights?  Is not what we are doing for APEC a violation of personal rights, the meaning of aloha, and the American ideal of freedom? 

The definition of responsibility is to be liable to be called upon to answer.  In every conversation I’ve had with my fellow doctoral students on this topic the conclusion ends with "this is just the way it is."  Very few times is anyone willing to have the conversation about how a small number of leaders in the classroom could make a difference (except Carole) with homelessness in Hawaii or human trafficking in India.  I see now that the problem is not homelessness in Hawaii.  The problem is me not speaking up to encourage others to have a different conversation just for today. To point out, just as Dr Oliver has done, we have to remember that if we see a problem we are being called upon to answer it. 

I hope, at least, my next conversation will not conclude with "it's just the way it is."   

Amber Stubbs, 2011