Jul 19, 2019
Emily is the Director of Kennewick Parks & Rec Department. A fun
fact about her is she won the homecoming burping
contest!
Emily felt as she was summoned to her current position. She had the
great opportunity to work for the Economic
Development Department for the city, and while she was in that
position, she was asked to take on the director role.
During those years with the city, she showed them that she could
work with people and build relationships. The
department had been floundering for a couple years and they
believed that she could help them move forward.
As an agile leader, when she is looking for team members, she is
looking for a can-do attitude, a problem solver who will
work just as hard as she is. She has high expectations and she
finds that when her team members also have high
expectations of themselves and the projects they are working on,
they can accomplish hard things. When everyone is
working equally hard, then they can move faster and more
effectively. She also looks for those who can juggle their jobs
and unforeseen obstacles at the same time. Our teams deserve to
work in a healthy, positive environment. As leaders, it
our responsibility to create that environment, even when it is
uncomfortable.
Emily affirms and praises her team by picking up the phone or
meeting with them to have a real-time conversation. She
believes it is an immediate affirmation of their success and
behavior. She also believes in affirming her team publicly.
She maintains weekly meetings even if there isn’t a heavy agenda so
that she can recognize her teams’ efforts in front of
one another. Often, they do an icebreaker where they learn
something more personal about their teammates.
She takes time to think, dream and plan between the Christmas
holiday and the New Year. She takes this time to reflect,
goal-set, evaluate what worked, where she can eliminate static, and
what the game plan is. She does that for both
personal and business. She schedules a mid-year check up to see if
she is staying on track. She typically does that in the
summer--poolside.
She plans her day around what is urgent, the big rocks. She writes
them down and places them by her keyboard and
crosses them off as she completes them. Procrastination rarely
leads to anything awesome.
Emily energizes herself by listening to Craig Groeschel leadership
podcasts, and she has a couple songs on her playlist
that pump her up on her way to work or when she is exercising.
One of her leadership secret weapons is lifelong learning so she
can bring new methods to her team.
Her biggest challenge in leadership is confrontation and criticism.
Operating from a place of integrity and for the right
reasons help to recover from those tough talks. Her greatest reward
is seeing her team accomplish their goals and
successes. Bite off what you can chew and then share it with those
around you. The best way to connect with Emily is on
Linkedin or in the City of Kennewick directory.