Extraordinary Women

I recently was asked to join a panel conversation in paying tribute to the generations of women whose commitment to nature and the planet have proved invaluable to society. 

Of the questions I received in advance, I was asked to be ready to discuss a woman who has inspired, motivated and/or encouraged me to reach my full potential. 

How do you choose ONE woman who inspires, motivates and encourages when there are so many?  I start to jot down names...

Sandra Rea
Virginia Woolf
Ann Rand
Wilma Rudolph
Sally Ride
Amelia Airhart
Anais Nin
Eleanor Roosevelt
Susan B. Anthony
Marlo Thomas
Condoleezza Rice
Sarah Palin
Hilary Clinton

...

The realization that I could continue to list women who have left their mark on history is comforting, but I know that I can only pick one.  I go back to the first person who entered my mind when asked.  Sandra Hale Rea.  Yikes, too personal.  Pick another.  But, I can't because she is the one woman on the list and in my life that helped shape me into the woman that I am today.

Introducing my Mom

My mom, Sandra Rea, worked full time and never missed a beat, birthday, speech or basketball game.  When her three kids were old enough, she put herself through collecte at night still working full time during the days.  She received her teaching credential and taught many grades, but found a love for 4/5 grade where she invested in her students each and every day.

What she has in common with the list of women above was a sense of purpose.  And like those women, what she taught me was to be fearless in my dreams.  To be ambitious.  that I could be anything I wanted to be.  She modeled hard work, integrity, passion, loyalty, servitude and the importance of not just leaving, but in LIVING a legacy.

In all the roles we play as women, I leave you with this "Sandra-ism" on living a legacy.  My mom would say, "Do not live anyone's life except your own so that when you look back at the end of your years you will be proud of the unique design you have created. Appreciation that every decision you had made through the years had lead you to this palce.  Serenity that your life was on purpose and by design." 

About Women's History Month
Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week." Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as "Women’s History Week." In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month." Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, Presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”


From the Law Library of Congress' guide to the legislative history of Women's History Month.

Information about Women's History Month was copied from http://womenshistorymonth.gov/about.html.  Visit year round to be reminded of the amazing women who paved the way for women's rights.

Heart of the Home

I don’t know about your house, but in mine the kitchen is the most used, but also versatile space. Any given moment, the kitchen serves as the dining room, the family room, romper room, homework station, home office, and even counseling office. Maybe for that reason it has been referred to as the heart of a home.

In my youth, the kitchen was the meeting place for the Rea family. It is where we ate breakfast in the morning, did homework afterschool and ate dinner each night with the family. I spent many hours washing the dinner dishes while talking with my mother or sister about the day, life, or whatever. The kitchen was also the room where we spent hours on end cooking for holidays, or creating jams and jellies from our fruit trees or baking cookies for Christmas.

My folks had a strict rule that food did not get eaten outside the kitchen. Of course, this rule did not apply if we were barbequing and eating outside. And, I conveniently ignored this rule when I won the Girl Scout Cookie Sales Championship which resulted in 100’s (maybe 1000’s) of boxes of Girl Scout cookies in the downstairs' freezer. I’m not sure if it was the depleting cookie stock or the fact that I put on 10+ pounds in two weeks, but my mom eventually caught on and banned Girl Scout Cookie sneaking and eating anywhere.

I wouldn’t change the kitchen from being the home’s heart either. What other room in your home can one communicate around the kitchen table, give sage advice at the bar, make memories around the oven and also eat and drink? The chaos that was my mom’s kitchen from my youth is now my kitchen as adult. It is the heart of my home.

Everything that forms in the kitchen is rooted in love. That includes the relationships and the products. I think it is why I bake. In fact, I would say baking is one of “my things”. I find joy in it. I find joy in sharing what I have created with others. Where else can you have stress management, make memories, show appreciation, role model love, honor your mother, share tradition and end up with a great homemade [fill in the blank]?

I recognize that baking isn’t for everyone, but everyone has something they do to show love. I leave you with the hope that you will share what you love with others. It could be sewing or fly fishing or technology or working in the community. The sharing of one’s authentic self, not only allows you to connect with others on a truly personal basis, but also encourages others to do the same. In essence, it enables us all to be a fully operating, walking kitchen. And, you know what they say about kitchens—they are the heart of every home.

Must stop typing and start baking.

Happy Holidays all,

~Stacy

Living a Leadership Legacy

Developing outstanding leaders is fundamental to my company's success. Not only because strong leaders have a positive, profound, and measurable influence on making the company a great place to work, but more importantly strong leaders inspire commitment through demonstration of leadership in action.

When I was little my mom recounted a conversation between a mighty oak tree and an acorn. The acorn was feeling undervalued and insignificant. The mighty oak urged the acorn to be patient, because with the right conditions the acorn would evolve into a mighty oak and be part of the larger ecosystem contributing shade, and housing and even food for forest inhabitants. And, when at last the oak was fully mature it would produce acorns. Acorns that would possess a spark of life to be passed on from one tree generation to the next. Even at a young age, my mom was promoting a life focused on living, not just leaving, an authentic leadership legacy.

How do you live a leadership legacy? Kouzes and Posner, authors of Leadership Challenge surface five practices of exemplary leadershipTM foundational for living a leadership legacy:
1. Modeling the Way— Setting an example through your day to day actions.
2. Inspiring a Shared Vision—Passionately believing you can make a difference.
3. Challenging the Process—Searching for opportunities to change the status quo.
4. Enabling Others to Act—Creating an environment of mutual respect where trust, authenticity and dignity are the most important tenets.
5. Encouraging the Heart—Keeping determination alive by rewarding peers for their efforts and celebrating accomplishments even the small ones.

Taking it further, living a leadership legacy is about daily, genuine servitude. It is about helping those who choose to work with you take root, find their path, discover their own unique gift and then celebrating it. In essence, that is the leadership challenge. Whether or not you leave a legacy depends on if you have succeeded at becoming and living life as an extraordinary leader.

To help leaders develop their full potential and live their leadership legacy, my company is committed to using Extraordinary Leader (Zenger Folkman) as their leadership framework. We can see pieces of this in our core competencies as well as our Managing through Premier Performance model.

I encourage you to read both Extraordinary Leader and Leadership Challenge as the next steps on your leadership journey and ask you to answer to yourself these two questions: If you were measured by your actions today, what leadership legacy are you living? What leadership legacy will you leave?
- Stacy 

REFERENCES

Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-131053.html

Extraordinary Leader, Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman, http://extraordinaryleader.net/extraordinary-leader-book.html