"If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade."
--Tom Peters
On Tuesdays, womenatliberty.com presents #LeadershipTuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Opportunity. We all want to get good opportunities and no bad ones. Good opportunities are ones that we are happy to receive. Ones where we believe that we can be successful. Bad opportunities invoke fear and dread in us and we believe that the outcome will not be worth our time or effort. We certainly don't believe that they will yield a successful outcome.
But what if we did not let fear or comfortability drive our decision? What if we put more value on how much we will learn, grow and contribute in the situation we are considering. It's easier to shrink away from challenges and situations that make us feel uncomfortable. However, l believe that leaders take on challenges, gain valuable experiences that they can share with others and grow their capacity to lead and function in a multitude of situations. Take the challenge and step out of the shade and your comfort zone. Open the window, pull up the shade and seize a new opportunity.
Follow #LeadershipTuesdays on Twitter, @LeadershipTues, to see daily posts with resources that help you develop and strengthen your leadership skills. Happy #LeadershipTuesday!
"I’ve learned that you get more out of people when they are happy in their jobs and excited about what they do. So I try to line up people and their vision with our vision."
--Deryl McKissack, CEO, McKissack & McKissack
Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Today's article comes from The New York Times' @nytcorneroffice column written by Adam Bryant and features Deryl McKissack, CEO of McKissack & McKissack.
Deryl McKissack is an engineer and a fifth generation builder. She has led McKissack & McKissack, a prominent architectural, engineering and construction firm based in Washington, DC whose portfolio of work includes the Smithsonian's new Museum of African-American History and Culture on the National Mall and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC, for over 25 years.
In the article she gives insight into how she learned to be successful in the male-dominated construction industry. She also has advice for millennials and anyone who aspires to impress your organization's leaders and be successful.
To check out today's featured article,
click here. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here.
"'I'm reminded of a plant manager who asked his lead engineer to explain her hiring process. She said, 'Well, we fill a bathtub with water and we offer the applicant a teaspoon, a teacup, or a bucket. Then we ask him or her to empty the tub.' 'I get it,' the manager said. 'A go-getter would use the bucket because it's faster.' 'No,' the engineer said, 'a go-getter will pull the drain plug.'"
--Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors
(Kettering University commencement address, 2013)
Every other Tuesday, womenatliberty.com provides Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Today we are featuring a quote that will make you laugh out loud and think, "what would I have done?".
A person who is interested in bettering themselves and their employees is always seeking opportunities to develop their staff.
Mary Barra's quote provides us with a comical view of a leadership test. More so, it causes us to examine our own ability to think critically and solve problems. So often we get caught up in using a "bucket" approach to solve a problem because that's the tool we have been given. But sometimes you have to allow yourself to think outside of the box and envisioned a solution that does not utilize your current tools. The problem still gets solved, but it is solved in a more efficient way.
Good leaders want their employees to think critically because in the end, the employee is engaged in the organization through their contribution, the organization reaps the benefit of the contribution and the leader is recognized over time for his influence and ability to make great hiring decisions.
Read the quote again and let it inspire you to think how you can develop a similar test that encourages go-getters in the organization. And by the way, how would you solve the problem of the bucket, the spoon and the tub full of water?
For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here.
Who you are is about your character, it’s about the amount of energy you put into things, it’s about how much control you take of your whole life.
--Ursula Burns
Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTYprovides Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here.
