Reflections on Leadership
Preface: Two weeks ago, I helped facilitate the 2nd Class of the American Meteorological Society’s Early Career Leadership Academy (ECLA) in Stone Mountain, Georgia. This past week, I was mostly off-grid spending time with family and friends at Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, and thought it would be good to tie ECLA and my vacation together, reflecting on leadership. While driving home, we heard about the El Paso shooting, and woke up this morning to news of the Dayton shooting, and I questioned whether this post would be warranted. I think it still is, as our country could use some more leadership.
In two years, the American Meteorological Society’s ECLA program has graduated more than 50 early career professionals in the Weather, Water, and Climate (WWC) community. I was a member of the first class of ECLA, and helped facilitate this year’s program. Here’s a little information about how it works.
After an application process, a small and diverse cohort of professionals is selected to participate in the program over the course of several months. During the program, the cohort participates in webinars that present perspectives on leadership topics from speakers in and out of the WWC community that they may have not heard from before; work in smaller peer mentoring groups of 4–5 participants to discuss leadership challenges they are facing; and complete readings and assessments to develop new understandings of leadership topics and their own leadership strengths. At the end of the ECLA program, the cohort comes together for an in-person workshop that occurs over several days, giving them the opportunity to interact face-to-face, and continue the learnings and leadership development with more interactive discussions.
The last session at this year’s ECLA had the cohort consider their personal leadership style and philosophy. In doing so, the participants could synthesize all they had learned throughout the program, put some goals in place to further their leadership development, and have the support of their peer mentoring groups as they continue in their leadership journey. One of the participants asked a co-facilitator what their own leadership philosophy was, and it struck me that I hadn’t really formalized what mine was, though I’m sure that I had one. In part, this is where the idea of this writing comes from.
As I spent time with my wife and my friends this week off-the-grid in Northwestern Wyoming, I considered what I learned during my experience in the first ECLA class and as a facilitator of this year’s class. I developed a list of what I believe to be 5 key principles of effective leadership, including: consideration for all people, stewardship for the environment, setting an example for the next generation, not stymieing development, and asking for help.
Consideration for All People
This is simply another way of stating the golden rule. While traveling through Yellowstone for three days, not a day went by when we didn’t experience a bison traffic jam. There are a couple kinds of bison traffic jams in Yellowstone, the first of which is unavoidable: one or more bison are standing in the middle of the roadway, and you have to wait for them to move so you can slowly pass by. The second sort of bison traffic jam is when somebody wants to take a picture of the bison (of which, there are more than 4000 in Yellowstone National Park) so they stop where they are on the roadway to do so, without concern for those who are in the traffic behind them. While seeing the bison in Yellowstone is an incredible experience, failing to pull off from the roadway to take in the sight prevents other visitors from seeing the same thing, or traveling to any number of other incredible experiences to be had at the National Park.
Leaders need to be respectful of those they are charged with leading and be understanding and supportive of their goals. Don’t cause a traffic jam by focusing solely on what is immediately in front of you — pull to the side to admire where you are, think about where you’re going next, and allow those with different goals to proceed towards them.
Leaders also need to be supportive of a new term I learned at this year’s ECLA: JEDI. Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. People from all walks of life and all corners of the world bring unique perspectives to challenges facing society, and working together and listening to other perspectives fosters new ideas and solutions.
Stewardship for the Environment
A leader should strive to maintain and improve the condition of the environment, whether it is the great outdoors or the workplace. Yellowstone National Park became the United States’ first national park in 1872. For 147 years, 2.2 million acres of land has been preserved for new generations to see the beauty and wildlife in Northwestern Wyoming. This wouldn’t be possible without park rangers, volunteers, and even visitors to Yellowstone serving as stewards to the environment.
During our trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park, we walked and hiked around 50 miles over 4 days through some of the most beautiful terrain in the country. Throughout those miles, I was frequently stopping to pick up trash and debris that others had left behind, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Among the trash I cleaned up included a hair tie, a comb, broken glass, flossing sticks, and wrappers. To ensure the Park is around for another 150 years, continuing these efforts to keep the park clean and preserved will be required.
Each workplace has a culture and an environment. Leaders set the tone of the culture and should work to maintain the strong aspects of the culture and improve the aspects that are not working. Changing culture problems is one of the hardest challenges of leadership, but will result in a stronger workplace that retains strong employees and helps to recruit new employees.
Setting an Example for the Next Generation
One member of our National Park party this week was my friends’ 6-year-old son. He did an amazing job with all the walking and hiking we did, sticking with us for almost all of it. With him the whole time were his parents, his aunt and uncle, and his “aunt and uncle” (my wife and I). Tooting our horn a little, this was a group of six strong role models.
The six of us exhibited the behaviors that we would like for him to emulate growing up, made sure he followed the rules, and answered the many questions he had during the trip.
During one of our stops at Yellowstone, there were people blatantly disregarding the rules and disrespecting the Park. The image above is one example, where the girl on the left dropped one of her hula hoops into Lake Yellowstone, and the guy climbing over the fence retrieved it. I snapped the picture to then report them to a Yellowstone park ranger.
Shortly after that, I saw multiple people who had left the boardwalk and were inside fragile thermal areas. Besides being potentially dangerous to themselves, it could damage or destroy the features that make Yellowstone unique. I made sure to call their attention to that fact so they would remain on the boardwalk. My hope is that my “nephew” sees what I did during the trip (following the rules, cleaning up trash from the ground, reporting irresponsible behavior, correcting irresponsible behavior) and uses that in his development as he grows up.
The best leaders prepare their charges to take on leadership roles and responsibilities. Demonstrating effective leadership strategies on a daily basis and working with those you lead to develop their leadership philosophy is critical to building a pipeline of strong leaders.
Don’t Stymie Development
While part of being an effective leader is ensuring that rules are followed and boundaries are set, it is also important that the rules and boundaries don’t prevent your charges from developing in their roles and growing as people. Let those you lead explore and push the boundaries. When they are given opportunities to showcase their work, be supportive, as it is reflective of your leadership that others see potential in that person. Companies that don’t work to continually innovate become stagnant and are surpassed by their competition. Development is essential.
A survey showed significant numbers of employees that would consider leaving their current employment to reach their full potential. Growth and development opportunities are critical to retaining and recruiting high performing employees, so provide them and support your employees when those opportunities arise elsewhere.
Ask for Help
While driving home from Yellowstone, I apparently drove over something in the middle of the road, and before long, I received an alert that my rear driver side tire was losing air pressure. We were in the middle-of-nowhere Wyoming with no cell phone coverage, but I managed to find an area to pull off the road to change to my spare tire.
Luckily, I am no stranger to changing spare tires — my dad taught me how when I was in high school, and I’ve had more than a few flats during my 15 years of driving. Usually, I change a flat on my own, but this time, I was with my wife. She was insistent in wanting to help, and while I could have handled the situation on my own, I accepted her help. Having an extra set of hands made for some quicker work, and we only lost about 15–20 minutes because of the flat.
Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it. — Albus Dumbledore
Nobody knows everything, even those who insist they do. To be at your most successful, asking for help with the things you don’t know is a sign of an effective leader. It encompasses the previous leadership principles mentioned and improves your performance.
No doubt, there are a number of leadership philosophies, styles, and strategies. Participating in ECLA, both as a member of the first cohort and as a facilitator this year, prompted me to consider what mine is. Having some time away from the Internet and other distractions gave me the opportunity to really think about what my philosophy might be. Strong and effective leadership will help us solve many of the challenges facing society. What is your philosophy?
