May 18, 2021
Speaker 1:
Everyone's favorite radio station is W I, I F M stands for what's
in it for me. And so you're only going to pursue a goal probably
that you really want
Speaker 2:
Raising the water levels of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern
Washington, the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TC
podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul
Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit
executives to hear how they lean themselves and their teams. So we
can all benefit from your wisdom. Here's your host, Paul Casey
growing forward services, individuals and teams, breakthrough
success.
Speaker 3:
It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's
episode with Elizabeth Barnes. She is the executive director of the
children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia. And I asked her
for something funny about herself, and she said the word avocado,
tell us more about that, Elizabeth.
Speaker 4:
So I'm kind of embarrassed about this when my husband and I were
actually like brainstorming about, what's a quirky thing about you
that people can relate about. And I was like, you know what? You
are, I am kind of obsessed with avocados. And I know it's such a
millennial thing, but you know, like avocados, I eat one or two a
day and I have to tell you, Costco has the best office. I like to
create like small little paintings. My mom got me off a couple of
socks for Christmas, and I might currently searching on Etsy for a
giant avocado painting to hang over my dining room table,
Speaker 3:
A little bit of an obsession, a little bit.
Speaker 4:
My husband told me that people were going to probably start buying
me all the condo, like figurines and stuff after this. And I'm
just, oh gosh,
Speaker 3:
Probably. Yeah. I had, you know, bald Eagles when I used to be a
school principal years ago, it was bald Eagles, and I got all those
gifts. So that's, what's coming your way. It's coming. I can't
wait, but we'll dive in. After checking in with our Tri-City
influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable
questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I
die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a
will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients
worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan,
but there are important options available to ensure that you have a
voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your
health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice
when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller
bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to
find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment. Call
Marin at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salem that's S a L U s-law.com
today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the
Tri-Cities welcome Elizabeth. I was privileged to meet you. You
reminded me early 2020. I was speaking for the Columbia basin
Sherm, the HR organization here locally, and you were there.
So
Speaker 4:
That was, yeah. And you and I ended up connecting because you were
speaking about your international experience. And I just moved back
to the trace of his, after being gone for 13 or 14 years, doing all
international work. And so I came up and introduced myself, wanting
to find out what happening internationally. And so, yeah,
Speaker 3:
It was good stuff. Very good. Okay. Good stuff. And then you've got
like young professional of the year or something, right? Well, you
got one of those tough things in the journal business. Yeah. And
the connect magazine recently got
Speaker 4:
Like the young, well, it was executive spotlight. It was of, it was
pretty exciting to get, they actually came in and did photographs
at my house with me and my son doing, you know, school. Yeah. It
was very
Speaker 3:
Cool. It was really cool. Thank you. Well, so that our tries to the
influencers can get to know you tell us about what your
organization does and what you spend 80% of your day
doing.
Speaker 4:
Yeah. So the children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia was
actually founded right here in the Tri-Cities about 25 years ago.
It was collection of teachers and principals and parents all got
together and they really identified that education literacy
education was the key to future success of our community. And so
they started the children's reading foundation, which is now a
national organization. The mid-Columbia is our local chapter right
here in the Tri-City. So we serve Benton and Franklin county. Our
mission is to encourage and educate families about their important
role in raising a reader and preparing their child for kindergarten
w also to support schools and ensuring the students read on grade
level by the end of third grade, and to facilitate community
involvement in helping young readers be successful. So this past
year during COVID, we have really been working in the community and
showing that we're getting as many educational resources and tools
as we can. We I'm so proud of my team. We have actually distributed
over 40,000 books to Ben or Franklin county to students, to
children and families had been Franklin county. And yeah, I mean,
if you've heard the saying read 20 minutes a day with a child,
that's us, that's the children's reading foundation. So if you've
heard that slogan, then you know who we are. And so, yeah, it's a,
it's an incredible organization. I'm so proud to be the, you know,
the head of this organization. It's, it's just wonderful,
Speaker 3:
Like literally in your email address, right? Yeah. 20
minutes@retwentyminutes.com. Yeah. It's just so
Speaker 4:
Important. How do I spend 80% of my day? So I spend 80% of my day
making connections with the community to really spread our mission
and raising funds for our programming. It's that's really, that is
my job. So it's like, how can we, how can we grow? How can we
develop? How can we ensure that we are meeting the community's
needs? And how can we make sure that we have funding to support
that support our mission. And then the other 20% is just managed my
incredible team. We're a small little team, but they're awesome. I
just, they're just so wonderful.
Speaker 3:
And why do you love to do what you do besides my incredible team,
but I've just been ranked.
Speaker 4:
I really love what I do because I'm really friendly, do believe in
our mission. Our non-profit is one of the few that actually
provides preventative instead of reactionary measures to help
ensure our community grows and thrives. Most nonprofits in our
community are reactionary. Okay. We have students that are dropping
out of high school. What do we do? And instead of that, we say
early childhood education, access to books for children at birth
through third grade, that's preventative. That actually changes an
entire community. So that's why I'm so passionate about what we do
is because we are so preventative, we are ensuring that we are
saving our community before anything ever happens. It's just,
that
Speaker 3:
Is so true. And it's good. You pointed that out. I was in
leadership Tri-Cities and I remember the day, well, there's a
couple of days where it talked about the community and most of the
services and the Tri-Cities were reactionary. It's like, okay, so
now that there's a problem, we're going to get funding to this. And
you are one of the few organizations that's on the front end.
Yeah.
Speaker 4:
You know, literacy really is the key to success. Children who are
able to read on grade level by the end of third grade are more
likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, be more
financially stable and be healthy members of rewire of our
community, you know? And so why not, you know, why not support that
kind of organization
Speaker 3:
Prevention? Yeah. So Elizabeth, outside your organization who helps
you be successful, do you have any mentors, other people in your
network?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, so that's really, that's really tricky. So we moved here like
six or eight months before COVID hit. And so it was such a tough
time. Right. I had big plans. I attended a lot of networking events
before COVID, but you know, it's, it's difficult to make those
connections and those relationships. And so I don't, I don't really
have outside of my board. I don't really have a lot of mentors or
like a lot of connections here in the Tri-Cities yet outside of,
you know, LinkedIn and maybe it's so hard, but yeah, it's yeah. So,
but I have a lot of, I have some really incredible women who have
guided and led me in the past. I've been in leadership for 15 years
now and I have some incredible, really powerful women who have
taken me under their wing and guided me and supported me. And so
I've reached out to them or bills last year and just asked for
guidance and support. And we're in different fields. Now I was in
education in the past. So they're still, you know, they're still
leading their schools and, and there, you know, they're gigantic,
huge schools and I'm running the small little non-profit, so we're
kind of indifferent different fields, but you know, they've still
been very, very happy to support me. And it's been, it's been
nice.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. You're an educator at me too. So leaders have growth
mindsets. How are you constantly evolving as a leader what's in
your own professional development plan?
Speaker 4:
So I had big plans for this last, for this year. Right. And of
course, like everything had changed, but so my professional
developed plan for this year for the 20, 20, 20, 21 has really been
ensuring that our brand name gets out there when people hear read
20 minutes, or when they hear the children who need foundation of
Maine Columbia, they understand like, oh, I know what that is like,
oh, that started here. Oh, okay. They give us books; they provide
educational resources. You know, they're here to support families
and really ensure that that brand name is connected. We've been
here for 25 years. And when I say the children, we need foundation
of the children's Winnie foundation. I didn't have to say make
Columbia. They're like, what's, that is that the child development
center is that, that place over there off the highway. I literally
had that last week.
Speaker 4:
And I was like, no, no, we support them. We provide ready for
kindergarten with that. But now that that's not us. And so really
trying to really trying to get our name out there. And the other
thing is really to expand my grant writing because we don't have a
lot of opportunities to be on the community to make those
connections and to, you know, look for sponsors. I've really turned
to grant writing this past year. I, I found that grant writing one
is very cathartic, right? Like you sit behind a computer, you talk
about your incredible organization and you ask people with lots of
money Coca-Cola please give me $40,000 to be able to do ready for
kindergarten for, you know, communities and Prosser and it's, you
know, like that kind of thing. And so you're like, okay, so they
have the money, it's an incredible program.
Speaker 4:
And I get to share about this incredible program. And so to be able
to, to do that, it feels very achievable, right? Like it's
something that can be like, and I did this, this, and I did this.
And at this moment in time where like, everything is so like, can I
even leave my house today? Like as a grocery store, I'm going to be
open, you know, still a year later, it's something that's actually
very achievable that I can check off my to-do list. I've written 45
breaths this year. He's like, you know, that kind of thing. I'm
like, yes, it has been a successful gear and, and it has been
successful. You know, the people are very generous. Grant makers
are very generous. And I think COVID, you know, has really
highlighted the importance of our mission. You know, literacy is
when schools closed and libraries closed and you know, so many, so
many children and families stuck at home that our mission has
become more important than ever. And so grant makers have seen that
and it hadn't have given us a lot of money. It's been a very
successful year for us. That's great. A lot of wins to
celebrate.
Speaker 3:
So how do you avoid burnout and negativity? How do you feed your
mental, emotional health and wellness on a regular basis? Being an
executive director.
Speaker 4:
All right. So there's a couple of things. So I have my little COVID
pod. Everybody has them, but I have my little, my little COVID pod.
It's my family and my parents who live here and, and then like
another little family and we all follow hand COVID guidelines,
which we've been doing for like a year now. And surprisingly, we
haven't killed each other. It's like, you know, it's just like, how
are we still friends? But, you know, so we, we do, we do like large
family dinners every week where we all get together every Friday
evening and we just hang out and have fun. You know, I just, I
really make sure that they're, that we have quality time, and we
don't talk about work. And you know, like I don't, I, I choose in
the past as an educator, you hang out with other teachers, you hang
out with other educators and you spend most of least in my
experience, you spend most of your time talking about work. Yeah.
And so, which is so annoying, I'm like, come on, we're, we're
intelligent, smart.
Speaker 3:
We're holistic. We have more people. We have more of a life. Yeah.
Well, let's, let's
Speaker 4:
Just talk about other things. And so I really worked at not talking
about work. And so, yeah. So there's that. And then I go on a lot
of walks. I'm all about like, I just, I'm not a runner. I've never
been a runner, but I really enjoy walking. And so I generally find
like a loop that works. I'm like, okay, so this loop is like a mile
long. Okay. So I'm going to go on three of these loops today and
I've gotten in my steps and I feel good. And it really does help,
like bring down the stress. And then I listened to a lot of audio
books. Like I am a, I'm a poor sleeper. And so helps me, like,
de-stress at night I can put an audio book and listen to a book and
it just helps me like shut off the cool work brain and then last
but not least a good top cocktail and how stance party helps ease
the stress. That's you know, my husband and I are we really miss
going out dancing. And so we have quite a few dance
parties
Speaker 3:
In our house. A little tick talk for you. All right. No, no, no,
no, no, no. It's not that we're not, we're not fancy dancers. No,
none of it was choreographed. Yeah. How do you go about getting
things done? My, my guess is you're an achiever because you were an
educator. That's what I picked up on. Cause there's endorphins
that, you know, go through you when you cross something off a list.
So how do you organize yourself? Get a little granular with them.
All right.
Speaker 4:
So I'm all about my to-do lists, but specifically Google calendar
and task list. So I love the Google suite because everything is
interconnected. So I have my email. So when you emailed me asking,
if I could be on your show, I will add that to my task list. And
then when I have time, I will get to it. I have I, and then I add a
little due date onto my calendar by when I have to have it done.
And then, you know, and then I, I have this, I have some of the
questions that you sent me. I have an, an, a document, which I
attached to my to-do list, which is also connected to my calendar.
So I don't lose it and it's all there. And then when I'm done, when
we're done here, I'm gonna check it off my list. And I'm going to
feel great about myself today. I have achieved something, you know,
and in, in, in an organization like this, where achievement is,
it's not an everyday thing. You know, if you get a grant, like if
you get an email about a grant and I got $5,000, right? Yes. That's
an achievement for the day, but you don't get a lot of you don't
get a lot of daily wins. And so having that task list of likes,
yes, I accomplished that. I call it keeps you motivated. It keeps
you going.
Speaker 3:
It does. Yeah. Does well before we head to our next question on
looking at the bigger picture, a shout out to our sponsor, located
in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new
coworking space at fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out
or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love
co-working at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in
February, enjoy free coffee or tea, WIFI printing conference rooms,
and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals
and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource,
rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised
of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is
built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about
us@fusespc.com or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland,
Washington. So Elizabeth, easy to get trapped into simply reacting
to crises and leadership. How do you specifically step back, take a
look at the bigger picture of what the organization is doing and
maybe even in your own life? Yeah. You
Speaker 4:
Know, it's a little hard, it's hard to, especially this past year
where so much has had to be reactionary, as things are constantly
changing day to day, right. It's, it's been really hard not to just
be reactionary, reactionary, reactionary. And do you actually take
that step back and say, okay, what are we actually trying to
accomplish this year? And so for me, when COVID hit and we were
like, okay, what are we doing? I took a, like a, I think it was
even, it wasn't even a full day. I think it was just like, you
know, a good six hours of freaked out and just like, no, I was
like, okay, now let's get together as a team virtually because our
office is at an elementary school in Kennewick. And so we had to
shut down, like everything we should have. Like, I literally hauled
by printer out under my arms and like, you know,
Speaker 3:
A little small desk at a home base. Cause I'd never seen it.
So
Speaker 4:
Homebase has been my house for the last year, but we do, we have a,
we have a couple of portables over at canyon elementary school in
clinic. Yeah. So, which we've been solely caught getting back into,
which has been nice, but yeah. So had a freak out and then said,
okay, what can we, what can we still do? All right. We can, we can
pit it, our programs that we have, there's the word of the year, by
the way. Sorry. I used, I'm really not going to say, you know, like
it's the, it's the, I know. So how can we transition from being
in-person? So we ha we had in-person tutoring in elementary
schools, and then we also have our early childhood education
program ready for kindergarten, which was also in person. So I got
with my program directors was about community outreach operations
manager and said, okay, what can we actually do?
Speaker 4:
And so we, in my incredible team, again, we're able to take what we
were doing, which everything was in person and say, we're going to
do it virtually. And we did, like, it was, we closed down on
Tuesday and we were doing the virtual program on Monday. I mean, it
was like that. And so, yeah, actually phenomenal. And my operation
like operations and community programs, cause it's the same
position because we're small. What, how can we ensure that we're
still getting books in the hands of families? If we can't be on the
community, if our volunteers, a lot of our volunteers are seniors
and it's like, they couldn't be on the community. How could we
still get books out into the community? And so we said, okay, let's
partner with organizations that are handing out food and clothing,
like second harvest, for example, or communities in schools and
other organizations like that. The boys, girls club, who were
saying, you know what, we're still gonna, we can provide food and
clothing to these families. So we said, books, literacy is just as
important second to food. [inaudible] Thank you might as well. And
so how can we, how can we ensure that, you know, we're saying that
literacy is also an essential need and so partnering with them and
saying, okay, you're already out there. Can we give you the books?
Can you distribute them for us? Our, can we come up instead of a
table and be behind you in passing, you know, books through windows
and things like that. And so doing a lot of drive-through events,
but really partnering with those community organizations that are
already out there. And so that's, we really,
Speaker 3:
Did you have those partnerships prior? Or did you go after them?
Once COVID hit?
Speaker 4:
It sounded like the boys and girls club and the way we've always
provided books to them for like their afterschool program and Karen
like that, but communities and schools and not really, and that's
become a really big partner for us. We've also partnered with
Cooper cupboard out of WSU. Who's providing like, they have a whole
like food and food and clothing closet out there. And we said,
okay, can we also get books out to your families? And so they
partnered with us and second harvest as also like one of our big
ones that were out there probably once a month or so partnering
with them. And a lot of partnerships, it's a lot, it's a lot. I
think we, we ended up having something like 23 different community
partnerships this past year with new ones that we hadn't had in the
past, but which was new for us, you know, which was, yeah. But our
organization is so old. It's hard to tell like maybe in the past we
had had those, those partnerships, but you know, transition happens
a new leader come and go. And so, you know, it's good to, it's good
to breathe new life.
Speaker 3:
Necessity's the mother of invention or, or connection, I guess. So
it has a board that you have to change your strategic plan. Cause
you probably have a strategic plan every one or two years. Did you
have to go, all right, this is back burner. This is back burner.
Here's some new stuff.
Speaker 4:
Oh, so interestingly enough, the board and I were crafting the
strategic plan at the time, of course, because they had just ended
their strategic plan. The executive, the previous executive
director had just exited. And so they're like, okay, we'll wait to
craft the new strategic plan with the new executive director. So I
come on board, we had been working on it for a couple months and
then COVID hit and everybody kind of for about three or four
months, just kind of like disappeared into their own little bubble
of panic. And so every, and so right. And so a
Speaker 3:
Little bubble of panic and I quit quickly on that one
hashtag
Speaker 4:
That's what it felt like everybody including myself, right? Like if
I'm not serving my, if I'm not doing exactly, if I'm not being
reactionary exactly to what I need to do right now, I'm just like
focusing on my family and trying not to look at the numbers and
freak out about swapping in this country. And so, yeah. And so our
strategic plan got put on hold. So we're, we're finishing up this
month. Long story short, we're finishing up this month, which is
good because I think like, because we are, things are starting to
open up, schools are starting to open up, you know, the community
is, is getting back on its feet, that this is a good time for us to
look ahead the next three years and say, where are we going? What
do we want to do? What, what have we done? That's really worked
successfully this past year.
Speaker 4:
And the hybrid model, as everybody is saying, the hybrid model
really is the future. You know? And so we are going to end up
keeping a lot of the things that we did in those partnerships that
we've created and the model of reaching families, the families that
really want to reach those low-income families, those really needy
families, the families that actually need educational resources and
tools and not just yeah, those families. And so the model that we
have at the moment is really serving those families. And so we
really do want to continue in the same thing.
Speaker 3:
How do you best lead organizational change, knowing how hard it is
for most people in change and your organization has been here, like
you said, for a long time. So you probably came in, you took the
job and it's like, alright, you looked around, you probably assess
the situation I'm putting COVID aside just for a moment. Right. And
so what's your view on that leading change.
Speaker 4:
Okay. So I have a view and then I have what happened with this job,
which are interesting. Okay. So, you know, from my view to best
organizational change, you have a clear vision of where you want to
go, right? You set up step-by-step goals and getting there, you
empower your staff to run with their ideas, to get there. You
support your team. When they feel at a loss, you utilize the
experience and knowledge of your board and you make the connections
to bring in funding and change. Then you celebrate every step. Wow.
That's all easy because that was your textbook answer. You know,
like those are the steps in real life. You know, walking into an
organization that's been around for 25 years. Organizational change
can be very difficult, but this is the way we've always done it.
This is how we've always done. This is how the previous executive
director did it.
Speaker 4:
And the one before them, and this is how we do it. And so I have to
say, COVID saved my life for this, like for this, or for actually
being able to create organizational change within this organization
in a fast way, in a very speedy way, COVID made it, it had to
happen. And so it was, it became, you know, necessity, the mother,
the mother of necessity. Right? And, and so we were able to make
those changes, which might have taken three years in a year. You
know, like we, we knew that we wanted to take things more hybrid to
take it less out of. I'll give you a great example. So like our
ready for kindergarten program in the past, we had a workshop that
were set up in elementary schools. We took our, we loved our
laptops. We took all of the supplies over there.
Speaker 4:
Parents would sign up, they would show up, we would have childcare.
Parents would attend. They would sit in this class. It was very
spoon-fed to the parents. They would leave, they would get a box of
resources and they would go home. Right. And that was, we would do
that three times a year. And we had, we had good success, but we,
but my, my program director was like, well, what if we, what if we
could do something where like, they could learn it at home. And
they have the, you know, they were doing like online education, you
know, online learning is really becoming trendy, but it just wasn't
the model. Right. And I'm sure it would have eventually become the
model in the future, but it became, she was the driving force to
make it the model during COVID. She said, okay, I have all these
ideas.
Speaker 4:
She worked with a national organization and they created it and
we've had astronomical success. Like more, more parents are
participating our community in this program than I've ever had
never participated because they can do it at any time. Right.
Especially, we always really wanted to get parents who had newborns
to two-year-olds. Right. That's really like the early, early age.
And that's always been the age that's been impossible to get.
Right? Like the numbers were always terribly low and this year
they've been higher than ever because parents can do it at any
time. Right. They're at home, they're nursing, they're feeding,
it's 2:00 AM the baby's crying that can't sleep, whatever. They can
just sit on their phone and do this program and get that early
child education to ensure that their child is successful. And so
it's been great. It's been absolutely, absolutely fantastic to be
able to do that quick transition, but what have happened, but it's
going to take them a lot longer.
Speaker 3:
You did get blessed with that, but it's not all bad. Yeah. Yeah.
With change. Wow. So ready for kindergarten. I know about the
program. Some of our listeners may not get, can you do a quick 30
seconds on it?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, absolutely. And I'll tell you about team read as well, which
is our other, our big program. So ready for kindergarten is an
early childhood education program. We provide three classes a year
and we provide all the tools and resources to ensure that the
parents are the teachers at home because a lot of children are at
home with their parents all day with a parent or a caregiver all
day. And we know even if you're not, but the parent is the first
teacher of every child. And so ready for provides those resources
and tools to the parent to ensure that they have the knowledge and
background, to be able to ensure that their child is ready on the
first day of kindergarten. We S there are a lot of children in the
Tri-Cities who start that first day of kindergarten, two or three
years behind their peers.
Speaker 4:
So if they're starting at the age of a two-year-old at five, how
long is it going to take them to catch up? Maybe never. I don't
want to be, I don't want to be a pest, but like, you know, like
they're always behind. They're always behind. And then that's,
that's not fair to them. And that's, and that's and no fault to
parents in the Tri-Cities, right? Like parents, no fault to parents
anywhere. Right. It's parents, every parent wants the best for
their kid. No parent is like, I to hope my kid fails, you know,
like,
Speaker 3:
No,
Speaker 4:
Trust me. Like, no, I'm a, I'm a mom, no parent wants that. And so,
you know, this is just providing that early childhood educational
background for parents. So that way they can ensure their kid is
successful. Yeah. It's, it's a phenomenal program. And then we also
have team read, which is a tutoring program where we provide
tutoring for children who are behind moving for, for first through
third grade. And that's in the elementary schools in the past,
we've actually had tutors from the community, volunteer tutors,
come in and provide them. One-on-one tutoring for 30 minutes a week
to, to children who are behind this year. We have changed it. I'm
not going to use the P word. We have changed it so that children
are, the parents are actually getting the tutoring resources to be
able to provide that one-on-one tutoring, that targeted one-on-one
tutoring for their kids at home. So the teacher evaluates the
student, they said the child is at this reading level. And then
here are all the resources. So we provide all the like level
tutoring resources for the parent to be able to provide that
one-on-one instruction at home for the kids.
Speaker 3:
Okay, great, great community resources. Wow. So one of the most
difficult tasks of a leader is when you must have a difficult
conversation with a team member, how do you bolster the courage to
do that?
Speaker 4:
So this was a really hard thing for me initially. You know, I was
really young getting into leadership. I got my first principal's
job when I was 29. And I was the leader of, you know, managing some
teachers that were long in the tooth, you know, like in their
fifties and sixties had been there forever, who were just like, how
dare you leave me? And I had to have those. I had to have some
difficult conversations, especially bringing in, you know, new
educational theory. And they're like, but I've been doing this for
30 years. What do you know kid? And I'm like, this is what we're
doing. And so having to have those long conversations and I used to
be a crier like where I would get like, so emotional, you know,
like freaking out like panic, like shaking. And I'm like, don't
cry, don't cry.
Speaker 4:
And so I took this great class from this author. Her name is
Jennifer Abrams. She's an educational her, she has a background in
education, and it was, it's all about having hard conversations.
And she takes you to those steps. You don't have a clear idea of
what you want to communicate before you go into the conversation,
like already have it in your head, be clear and concise. Like you
don't, don't apologize for the fact that you're having this
conversation. Like you don't own it. It's not, you lay out the
facts had documentation to back up your meeting, practice
beforehand, out loud. You can actually hear the words coming out of
your mouth. You're not like, you know, you might have practiced
them in your head, but actually say them out loud before you go in,
take a second person with you, a board member or another leader in
your organization. If you're afraid, you won't be able to get
through it. And then she said, this is my favorite part. She was
like, if you're going to cry, clench, just like collect your booty
and the whole back of tears and it'll hold it and then share what
you need to share. And I'm like, okay. And I have to tell your
work. I haven't cried through a single meeting.
Speaker 3:
Wow. That's a very practical tip.
Speaker 4:
I know. I just loved it. It was so great. No one has ever shared
that.
Speaker 3:
That's awesome. Well, finally, what advice would you give to new
leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more
influence?
Speaker 4:
I have to say like take every opportunity to get out into the
community, to meet new people and to really share your vision for
your organization. You know, a lot of leaders are passionate. A lot
of new leaders are passionate about their organization, but when
they might, they might be too passionate and not listen. That's the
one thing, right? Like, you know, you're, you're super passionate,
but you don't actually listen to what other people are saying.
You're just so worried about getting your words out, so, you know,
share your vision, but then also take the time to sit back and
listen to what other people are saying. Keep current, make yourself
a professional development plan. As we talked, like, what is your
professional development plan makes you actually have one be
looking to the future? What am I, what am I, what am I struggling
in?
Speaker 4:
What do I need to work on? And then reflection, reflection is key
to growth. You know, did you make a mistake? Did you get, you know,
did, did the board sit you down and say, Hey, this is an issue.
Okay, it's an issue reflect, how can I, how can I own this? It is
my fault. What did I do? How can I fix it? So a way, you know, so I
can learn from the future and really just, you know, it's, it's
what that reflection is key and owning your mistakes, not being
like, well, is that my it's not my fault. You know, they just hate
me. They're just out to get me. Well, even if, so, even if that's
true, you did hurt someone's feelings. So how can you own that? How
can you take it on, how can you move forward and how can you move
forward? Not just let it hold you back.
Speaker 3:
Good stuff, good stuff. Well, how can our listeners best connect
with you and also connect to the programs? All of
Speaker 4:
Our events can be found on our website on Instagram and Facebook,
which is@retwentyminutes.com.
Speaker 3:
Well, thank you again, Elizabeth, for all you do to make the
Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Well, let me wrap up our
podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend it's growing
forward service training. I would love to come into your
organization, maybe do a lunch and learn, or a couple hours
workshop that will help build the leadership skills of your team.
So you can resource me@paulcasey.org, and we'll customize something
that will fit your schedule and your budget, and sort of beef back
up professional development for your, for your people this year.
Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest Elizabeth
Barnes from the children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia
for being here today on the Tri-Cities influencer podcast, we want
to thank our TCI sponsors and invite you to support them. We
appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help
inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership
tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of
influence. It's the great Stephen Covey. He said, listen with the
intent to understand not the intent to reply until next time kgs
keep growing forward.
Speaker 2:
Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul
Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing
practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives
and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and
experience their desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul
and your leadership development, connect with
him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help
you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for
growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to
help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting
your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my
calendar checklist, go to WWE dot, take back my calendar.com for
that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type
the word grown
Speaker 3:
Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill
Wagner.