CLASSROOM REFLECTION

Masters Class Session Class Reflection by Chuck Winn, Class of 2015, Masters 2019 – Bozeman

The stories we tell ourselves.

My leadership battery was hovering around empty. A series of tough issues at work had taken their toll and I was seriously contemplating my next career move. I had convinced myself it was time to move on; I was ineffective, old school, and the right thing to do was to cowboy up and pass the reigns to someone else more capable with new perspectives. Time to move to whatever was next – time for my encore.

Enter Leadership Montana Masters Class and the magic that happens when leaders get together in a trusting environment to get real and be real with each other.

The Lewistown session centered around Courageous Collaborations. As an added bonus, one of my favorite leaders, Pat Hughes, had come to town to be with us. I walked in not knowing anything about the topic but, hey, I liked the two words individually and together they sounded cool.

As with all things Pat Hughes, we hit the ground sprinting and never stopped until it was time to pack and leave. I’m fairly certain it was two weeks of material packed into two days and after about 5 minutes my head was spinning.

At its core, Courageous Collaboration is the art and science of bravely engaging others in an effort to improve outcomes and relationships by delving deeply and truthfully into issues. Simply put, as we decide what to invest our time, resources, and relational capital in, it’s often helpful to ask ourselves (and our teams) two main questions; Is the juice worth the squeeze, and, on a scale of 1 to 10, how is important is it that we (fill in the blank).

In a rare moment of honest self-reflection I realized that so much of what was draining me were things that I myself had determined were important. I was investing heavily in things that, at the end of the day, didn’t really matter much to anyone but me. To dramatically emphasize this point, Pat looked and pointed right at me and said “the people with the problem are the problem!” Okay, she didn’t point and she wasn’t looking at me but the issue became clear; I realized the way I was thinking was causing my problems. True collaboration is hard, and courageous collaboration is even harder, but the results are often remarkable.

Fast forward a few weeks later and I’m still sifting through my notes, thoughts, and interactions with my classmates. As usually happens to me after a Leadership Montana experience, I find myself discovering new lessons at unexpected times. In this particular case, I’m reminded that we find what we look at and I was looking at difficult issues through the lens of loss; loss of energy, loss of relationships which ended in loss of the thing that kept me coming back to work all these years. I had lost perspective and was telling myself the wrong story. Fortunately, conversations with my classmates helped reset my thinking. The things that were draining me were actually some of my most rewarding work. When we are willing to be appropriately vulnerable with people we can trust, we open ourselves to a whole new way to engage and learn.

Thanks to my time at the Masters Class, my battery is charging again and I’m looking at my work with a renewed anticipation instead of dread. No, it’s not always unicorns and rainbows, but I am once again looking for opportunities to connect and courageously collaborate with a group of really smart coworkers. I believe there is a golden nugget in most every circumstance and I am convinced now more than ever that a leader’s job is to find that nugget and use it to inspire and recharge ourselves and those around us. And, that’s the new story I’m telling myself.