Communications Blog • Kristin Magette

100% organic leadership

January 28, 2014 by kristinmagette Filed Under: Growth & change Leave a Comment

Truth: It feels bad when you have something important to say, but nobody stops to listen. Or when you have an idea, but nobody asks you to contribute. It feels especially bad when you see yourself as a leader, but others aren’t treating you like one. I’ve been there.

Organic leadership in an organization, or within a team structure of any kind, isn’t about job titles. A title does make someone a boss and de facto leader, but organic leadership is available to virtually any team member. These leaders are not bound by — or anointed by — titles.

The people the boss listens to — and the people that other leaders seek out for collaboration — have those opportunities because they are perceived as valuable. Value comes in a lot of forms, but at the leadership table, it comes at the idea level. Value means innovation and experimentation. With seeking new concepts, new angles, new solutions. And it most certainly comes with initiative — with not waiting to be asked, assigned, or (especially) told.

You don’t need a specific title to be an organic leader, but you must show that you bring something new to the equation. There are a lot of people who follow through, work hard and dedicate themselves to getting the job done. Those people are utterly fundamental to every single organization and team. Leadership is about asking questions, looking for things that could be better, and then proposing solutions and ideas. And for organic leaders, this process begins without prompt. Their value comes from finding ways to do things better, even (and especially) in places where problems may not be readily apparent.

Turning on a light in a dark room is solving a problem. Looking for ways to better illuminate shadowed areas of a room is leadership.

Earning a seat at the leadership table takes effort and patience. Here are a few things that can help open doors:

Do the good work. Leaders must be dependable and dedicated first. Be trustworthy. If it’s confidential, protect it. Pitch in to make your boss and coworkers look good whenever you can.
Treat other leaders with respect. Resenting existing leaders (however great they may or may not be) because they have what you want will only sabotage your goal. Convert resentment into curiosity. Spend time with a leader you know, and listen to learn more about how he or she thinks. Something as simple as carpooling to and from a meeting can be valuable time to listen and gain insights about the processes and future of the team around you. Ask a leader what your greatest strength is, and how they see that strength being valuable to the entire team. That gives you a specific area to think about how you can share your value effectively.
Own your authority. This isn’t about entitlement. (“I deserve to be treated as a leader because _______________.”) Owning your authority is understanding what you can bring to the table, and then doing it best. It’s also about knowing the role you play on the team and identifying ways it can create broader growth. If you work in accounting, how can your knowledge contribute to other areas of the organization’s success?
Work to make the future better. Put aside the to-do list for a moment. Look for something simple that could be improved, and think about realistic paths to improvement. Imagine sharing your ideas with your boss or others, and brainstorm all the questions or concerns that could come up. Think about your answers, let the ideas settle in your brain for a little longer, and then take the initiative to begin the conversation with your boss.
Know when a change is best. There are times when organic leadership simply isn’t going to happen. Perhaps your boss lacks true vision or trust. Maybe your experience or education are not valued in your work setting. Consider that your personality may not be the right fit for the team. If you believe that you are ready to be at the leadership table and that opportunity doesn’t exist where you are, it’s time to move on.

Serving as an organic leader within an organization is empowering, challenging and deeply rewarding. What pitfalls have you seen on the road to organic leadership?

On becoming a student of change

January 14, 2014 by kristinmagette Filed Under: Growth & change, Thoughtful work Leave a Comment

Several years ago, my beloved boss abruptly took another job out of state. This departure, which transpired over the course of just a few weeks, meant saying goodbye to a man who allowed me to find my voice as a communications professional — and empowered me to make my voice heard.

It was a time of change that turned me inside out. I was angry, lonely, sometimes even a little bit desperate. But more than anything, I was afraid.

I work in school public relations, and if there’s one thing that my school PR family understands, it’s the nuance of the relationship between a communications director and a superintendent. And just how much (of everything else) depends on it.

Although I already had a solid working relationship with the man assigned to take over the position — and have thoroughly adored working for him in the six years since — the fear of the unknown paralyzed me. I was afraid of whether my newly discovered and increasingly confident professional voice would matter to my next boss. I was afraid of how the working dynamic would undoubtedly change. I feared I wouldn’t find the same level of chemistry and friendship with someone new.

I was afraid of the unknown.

But in my months-long process of fretting, I stumbled on this quote:

Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant.
-Anthony J. D’Angelo

We all know that change is constant, and hard. But this idea of becoming a student of change made me pause. To be a student of something means to sit with it and get to know it. To understand the ins and outs. And to embrace that fear cannot exist in a place of understanding. Becoming a student of change would allow me to take charge — to learn and grow, instead of being hostage to a force outside my control. Time (mercifully) passed, and things got easier as I took inventory and worked harder.

Fast forward to today, and I’m preparing for a yet-to-be-hired new superintendent. I won’t say I’m always comfortable with the unknown. But I can say that approaching this change as a change student opens up a space where I can operate without fear. (I should note that the fact we have every reason to believe the next superintendent here will be a great leader makes it far easier to do this.) With applications rolling in and my current superintendent on contract until the end of June, this road isn’t especially short. But here are five questions I am working on right now, as student of change:

What specific skills or knowledge can I learn from this transitional process that will be valuable to me in the future?
What activities or skills can I personally call on to steady my fretting?
What specific skills or knowledge will I provide to make my new boss successful?
What steps can I take to help my new boss learn about me, even before he or she takes the reins in July?
What ideas will I take to my new boss — innovations or projects that I’ve been thinking about but haven’t moved on yet — at this time next year?

These questions have already begun to provide great insight and calm as I size up the next six months. If nothing else, they are specific, constructive thinking things that I can choose to use when those fretting-about-the-unknown moments come to visit.

How do you stay focused, intentional and constructive during times of transition and change?

There’s good in the grey

January 7, 2014 by kristinmagette Filed Under: Growth & change 2 Comments

The creative person is willing to live with ambiguity. He doesn’t need problems solved immediately and can afford to wait for the right ideas.
Abe Tannenbaum

Let’s face it: The world is easier to master in black and white. Right or wrong. Up or down. Good or bad. Ideas and processes that mingle in ambiguity are left for someone else to figure out, a puzzle for someone else to solve. Sometimes they’re discarded all together.

What a waste.

Things don’t get better without work. (Nor do they, with all due respect to Mr. Tannenbaum, just by waiting.) It takes time and effort and sweat and maybe even a few tears to truly design a solution to a problem, or to introduce innovation to a process.

Because I’m passionate about making things better through strategic communications and collaboration, this grey area — this ambiguity — is where it’s at. I thrive here. Yes, I thrash a little too. And I doubt. I put it away and pull it back out. (Sometimes seventeen thousand or so times.) I give up and start again. But the grey is where I’m at my best. And it’s the source of the most exciting and rewarding work I’ve ever had the opportunity to know.

Making things better is an awesome proposition. It’s about solving problems. Building trust. Increasing transparency. Empowering leaders and stakeholders. No matter your work, it’s hard for me to imagine a more invigorating and rewarding thing than discovering ways to do things better, to make things better.

But making things better is also about asking the right questions (and maybe a few of the wrong questions) and never settling for the easy answers. Yes, it can become a rabbit hole, as the deeper you get in the questions and search for answers, the murkier it gets. I have waded through this process countless times, and many of those I nearly lost all connection with my original purpose. What was I trying to do, again?

But that’s okay.

Once I learned that this time wandering in the desert is necessary to the work of making things better, I stopped being afraid of ambiguity. Sure, it frustrates me sometimes — who doesn’t get impatient and willing to settle for a quick solution to a nagging problem? And by no means do I spend every day, all day, thrashing around in making-things-better mode. (Hello, nervous breakdown!) No, this is the sort of process that may include a few work sessions, but it develops in the way that the problem or question seeps into the cracks of the mind. That’s when I know I’m in the grey again. (Hello, old friend!)

Clarity can be slow in coming. Rarely do I have light bulb moments in the shower, on a run, or during breakfast. I don’t usually wake up in the middle of the night with a solution. (I do, however, wake up plenty of nights with more questions and processing.) But the longer I convince myself to linger in the grey, the better the end result.

I love the Great Idea as much as anyone. I live for it, in fact. Even the idea that can’t quite be articulated just yet, the thing that makes sense in your mind, until you try to put it into words. The idea is what wakes me up in the morning and nags me at night. It’s what fires me up to sit down and do my work. But more than anything, I love the grey area where those ideas are developed into the real solutions — innovations, approaches, systems — that make things truly better.

It’s in every one of us

December 22, 2013 by kristinmagette Filed Under: Growth & change Leave a Comment

I love Christmas. It’s not my favorite holiday — that belongs to Thanksgiving, with its comforting customs and expectations only for food, togetherness and gratitude.

But Christmas holds a special rank, especially in the time since I became an adult, and a mom. I was beyond fortunate to grow up in a family that connected around the holiday season each year and enjoyed cherished traditions. Not all of our traditions were (or are) deep with meaning. The most memorable or enduring are just the things — often ridiculously simple — that connect us to other generations, other decades, other stages of life. Whatever they are, these traditions connect us to the past and instill a powerful sense of source, the what you come from.

Music has always had a place in my family, and I credit my dad with that. He never played an instrument — though he is pretty sure he was a blues musician in a former life — but he always has music playing in the house and in the car. What used to be on record albums and reel-to-reel now is on CD and even his iPod. (I only wish that had been the case when I was a little girl, as my sister and I were not allowed to dance in the living room where the record player was. Our energetic and certainly artistic moves would have tragically scratched the vinyl. Eventually he wired speakers to the family room, with its carpeted floors and safe distance from the record player, giving us a space to dance and leap to our hearts’ content.)

Music was in our lives every day, all year. But if absence makes the heart grow fonder, perhaps that’s part of why Christmas music — and our annual rediscovery — was so special. Some was instrumental, but our favorites were the ones we could sing to. And for my sister and me, the favorite of our sing-along albums was John Denver and the Muppets. Hands down. To this day, it is the one I pull out when I beat my kids and husband to the CD player. Yes, it’s pretty silly. But it connects me to my past, to my childhood and culture and memories. And if you haven’t had the good fortune to listen to this particular album before, let me assure you: There is soul there.

There is clever comedy, too, most often courtesy of Miss Piggy. (A mixup in We Wish You A Merry Christmas has Miss Piggy thinking they’ve demanded to bring out the Piggy Pudding. Clarification ensues, courtesy of Gonzo: “No, FIGGY pudding. It’s made with figs. And bacon.”)

But even amid the raucous Little Saint Nick from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem and chaotic Twelve Days of Christmas, there are some wonderfully thoughtful treasures. And a passage from one continues to resonate with me every time at this year.

It’s in every one of us
To be wise
Find your heart
Open up both your eyes
We can all know everything
Without ever knowing why

It’s in every one of us
By and by

This Christmas, I wish you connection with traditions of the past, openness to the promise of the future and a generous helping of John Denver and the Muppets.

Boiling it down

December 11, 2013 by kristinmagette Filed Under: Growth & change, Personal branding Leave a Comment

As I recently shared, I am on a journey to refine my personal brand — to define myself as a professional and individual.

This journey began about a month ago as I set out to create personal greeting cards to reflect my brand. I have always been a note writer, and I credit my mom with teaching me this value. Growing up, my sister and I had to write thank you notes to relatives for Christmas gifts within a day or two of opening them. A dreaded chore at times, but one that taught us well. I went away to college, studied abroad for a year and later married and moved a few hours from home. And whether my mom was mailing me a couple of photos from a recent holiday, a care package with some cookies, or just the pair of sunglasses I’d forgotten on her kitchen counter, there was always a personal note tucked inside.

Don’t get me wrong. My daily world survives on e-mail, text, direct messages and phone calls. But that’s what makes a personal note so powerful. It stands apart.

The custom greeting card endeavor required me to work on two things:

A quote to feature on the front that reflects the brand I aim to project
A personal boilerplate statement to include on the back with my contact information.

So, first, the quote. I searched for quotes on creativity, on strategy and communications. On working together, having a vision, bringing passion to your day. I lingered on Alice In Wonderland quotes for probably far too long. After bouncing around on Google enough to coat my eyes and mind with a permanent glaze, I finally settled on a popular Steve Jobs quote:

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Yes, I’d hoped to avoid a possible cliche and find something more Masterpiece Theatre, less Good Morning America. But the more I looked and the more I thought (and thought), the more I found the Jobs quote to articulate the essence of my brand, better than any other. It got to my idealism, my love for the creative process, my hope for the future. (And the chronic crazy.) It just worked.

Next came my boilerplate. An old-school journalism term, a boilerplate is the short, standard paragraph that corporations and organizations include at the end of every news release. Done right, it orients the reader, immediately, to what you’re all about. Think of it as boiling everything down to the very basics. (The term actually derives from the late 1800s when steam boiler manufacturers used metal plates so people could tell who made the boiler, but that’s okay. I’m flexible that way.)

For my own boilerplate, I knew it needed to be short. An elevator speech needs to wrap up before those doors open up. (And goodness knows my chaotic brain does better with fewer words to recall on demand.) But more important than length, I knew it needed to be direct — not a word wasted, not a syllable more than necessary — but also human, showing that I am more than a list of skills. After much deliberation, word play and idea-bouncing with one awesomely brilliant friend, here’s the result:

I’m passionate about making things better through strategic communications and collaboration. And I’m crazy about my family, sharing stories, big laughs and great food.

That’s it. And the best part? I typed it just now without having to look back at my notes. I’ll take that as a sign. A good one.

Let’s talk labels

December 6, 2013 by kristinmagette Filed Under: Growth & change, Personal branding 2 Comments

Right here, today, I am rejecting my fear of being labeled. In fact, it’s time to label myself.

Yes, this stirs in me all sorts of fears and vulnerabilities. I’m too complex to be labeled. … You don’t know me. … There’s more to me than that. But this desire to define how others define me started recently with something I can only describe as coalescence — a small series of unexpected phone calls and surprising e-mail messages, all leading me to the conclusion that people were beginning to figure out what Kristin Magette is all about.

Now, before I get any closer to the self-importance ledge, let me say that these connections and opportunities were not of the life-changing variety. Agreeing to write a short blog post for the web site company at the school district where I work. Sitting as the subject of a video blog for a consultant we’d hired to help us embrace social media, which got exciting traction when Edudemic picked it up. Speaking on a panel in a local social media workshop for non-profits. Writing an article or two for an education journal about social media in schools. The kinds of things that flatter but don’t make you some kind of a Big Deal. (Which is good because I’ve watched enough reality shows on Bravo to know that I am not entirely interested in being a Big Deal.)

But in the midst of realizing that I was kind of becoming known for something, I read the perfect post by (amazing) Jonathan Fields. His point: People will label you – so you’d best label yourself first. And this was the moment when I decided to take control. I am more than someone who has ideas about social media in schools — I love that part of my job and professional identity – but it is just one part. The need to label myself more holistically is what led me to personal branding. And if I’m going to brand myself, I need to decide what that means and how to get there. Learning from a friend and colleague who has a masterful approach to personal branding (read about it on his blog here), these are the goals I set for myself:

Improve my profile on LinkedIn to maximize for SEO, and be purposeful about my use of social media, in particular Twitter and (sigh) Google+. Seek to engage with the users and spaces I want to be connected to.
Create greeting cards featuring a quote that gets to the essence of who I am and how I want to be perceived. Use these cards to send personal notes to friends and colleagues on occasion.
Write a short, easily remembered personal boilerplate. (Insert shout-out to the awesome journalism teachers of my past for the fact that I know what a boilerplate is.) Weave this into my LinkedIn profile, and include it on the back of the greeting cards.
Upgrade my professional photograph. (No, that selfie I took from my laptop in an old dumpy office doesn’t quite do it for me anymore.) Since I currently lack a budget for this goal, I’ll focus on other goals for now. The free ones.
Start blogging. (This was not an original goal, but seeing as how I’ve now done it, I am adding it to my list. Does anyone else out there add things they’ve already done to their to-do list? Oh. Okay.)

If you have worked on personal branding for yourself or have thoughts about my goals, please share!

I’m not a blogger

December 2, 2013 by kristinmagette Filed Under: Growth & change 4 Comments

I don’t just work as a communications professional. I live it. Every hour of every day, I am communicating – or thinking about messages and strategies and tactics. At the office. With my family. In the car. In my kitchen while I’m making dinner. The near constant analysis of words and messages makes me who I am. Even if that is a little crazy.

So it would follow, perhaps, that someone like me would jump right into blogging – a giant stage where I can share my thoughts and ideas with the world. I admire friends and colleagues who blog. I follow countless blogs written by strangers – people I have come to appreciate deeply because of what they’ve chosen to share on this stage. But for me, the idea of becoming a blogger has always just been one more overwhelming prospect in my already chaotic life. In roughly the same category is my lingering desire to make more of my family’s pantry staples from scratch. But when it’s Thursday, and I’m almost late to a meeting, and the kids will want toast in the morning … that loaf of bread on the grocery store shelf wins every time.

I recently had coffee with someone who offers me the wisdom and perspective that comes with many more years of experience in the strategic communications world. An hour or so into our conversation, he asked if I had ever considered blogging. I avoided the question.

He followed up by telling me not to be deterred by the “celebrity” aura of the blogging world, where the stars have masses of devoted followers and regularly are going viral about this or that brilliantly clever thing.

“You know,” he said, “you can blog without being a blogger.”

Okay, now I’m listening.

Immediately, I thought of another little corner of my life. A couple of years ago, I started running. It happened a little at a time, first walking, then adding in short bursts (if slow and labored actually qualify as bursts) of running. Eventually, one Sunday morning, I ran 30 minutes without walking, or dying. A huge accomplishment for me.

Over the next year, as I improved and got a little more confident in my running, I started getting ambitious. I looked for training strategies and tricks to improve my speed, my strength, my mental toughness. Maybe I’d run a 10K! Or a half marathon! I started talking to other people I knew – great runners – to learn from them and hear their stories about how they got to be so fast, so strong.

Fortunately, one of these conversations was with a coworker who issued me a warning:

“I can tell you enjoy running,” he said. “Be careful about getting too caught up in getting faster and stronger. Don’t call yourself a runner. Just run.”

In the many months (and three very modest 5Ks) since that conversation, I have realized that I’m not a runner. I run. And I usually run in the dark morning hours, which gives me the independence to evaluate my success based solely on my body’s strength and response. I don’t worry about anyone else, or my race time, or a bib on my shirt. It’s just regular old me, running. It’s empowering. Sometimes it’s even a tiny bit amazing.

So now, I begin blogging. Not as a blogger. Just as someone with a few ideas, with a desire to make the world a better place and with a passion for words, creation and expression. It’s a personal journey (friends welcome). And that’s exactly what I want.