In Miami, Patti Digh opened the final day at the Great Ideas Conference, sharing what she is learning as a mother of two girls as well as from the growing community attracted by her work, her blog, and her book, Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally.
Watch her presentation and especially note her approach to confronting complex problems, like raising children or becoming socially responsible. It will instantly reduce stress and confirm what you know to be true about being human.
The best part of opening the day with this experience was seeing how it changed the rest of my day: how my perspective shifted; how I interacted with people; how I absorbed meaning from the sessions that followed.
Fortunately, the final session I participated in was Doug Stevenson's session on Emotional Eloquence: The Lost Language of Leadership. Doug demonstrates and reveals how to connect with any audience, to both inspire and teach, and to be a truly authentic leader, all in 75 minutes. We learned how to "speak from our head with our heart wide open," creating trust with story and maintaining an emotional connection with those we wish to lead. It was 75 minutes I will never forget. Using his approach, you can be just as memorable.
On reflection, I can see all of these ideas in one participant who happened to choose four of the same sessions I did and I got to know better over three days. Mindy Walker works out of Kansas City for the Missouri State Teachers Association. Her stories of early career experiences teaching in correctional facilities, raising two boys, and now showing up in the schools where her members teach brought home to me how being human is at the heart of all our work.
Before you cut your association's travel budgets, think twice. Now is the time you show up, to literally be there for your members. Crowd the bench where they sit, as Patti said. Tell the stories that connect us together, as Doug said. Be human at work, online, and by phone. Live intentionally.
