ARTICLE
“Leaders must get comfortable with living in a state of continually becoming, a perpetual beta mode. Leaders that stay on top of society’s changes do so by being receptive and able to learn. In a time where the half-life of any skill is about five years, leaders bear a responsibility to renew their perspective in order to secure the relevance of their organizations.” The Harvard Business Review conducted a study (https://hbr.org/2015/10/the-best-leaders-are-constant-learners) to identify the degree in which leaders must adapt to their surroundings at the workplace, in their community or at home. Leadership is not a place in line. It is about action with direction that draws people in, makes them feel a part of the outcome. When that involvement becomes contagious — in a positive way — it will lead to an exponential growth of the organization. You only have to look at successful organizations to see there is a complete buy-in of their values, their missions and goals. The organization’s leadership pushes forward with ideas, and then the workforce grasps the idea and makes it reality. In the case of a small and nimble organization like your Santa Cruz Area Chamber — our volunteers (member company representatives) and our energetic UCSC interns are part of our growth and future success. The best leaders are those who continually learn from their peers, their colleagues in their respective industries, from friends and yes, our youth. In my own professional experience, I never stop learning because I never stop asking questions. To showcase that leadership means being open to change, new ideas and developing a core group of dedicated individuals who share that vision. Sustainable competitive advantage for your Chamber depends on having people that know how to build relationships, seek information, make sense of observations and share ideas through (an intelligent) use of new technologies and straight forward communication. In other words, people cannot learn all they need to learn within the hallowed walls of their office. They must look beyond the corporate campus, university campus, and beyond their computer screens. They must learn through action learning: the act of real people working through real problems, and then reflecting on the process to learn from it. My focus this week is on the value of our youth. For the Chamber to be really successful, we need to embrace our next generation of leaders. What better way than to provide a path for these young students to be a part of our Chamber’s mission to produce and promote economic vitality for our region. We are fortunate to be linked to a very special community and an outstanding University. Every quarter, a group of young women and men help the Chamber with internal administrative tasks, updating our website data, attending meetings and scanning the community for interesting things to report about. The Chamber can be their learning center giving them a first-hand opportunity to be a part of the Santa Cruz business community. My job is to learn from them as well as it is my responsibility to provide each intern ‘a teachable moment’ that sparks their interest — not only about the Chamber, but also about our community and life. On our website, we provide a short glimpse about them. Take a look here: http://www.santacruzchamber.org/interns.html Take a moment to stop in to meet them personally - I think you will be impressed with their talents. Taking the Road Less Traveled By — one of my favorite writers, Robert Frost said: “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and it has made all the difference.” Thank you Mireya Avila, Josh Ebadi, Chelsea Thompson and Ilan Zur for taking the Chamber road less traveled. We will provide you that action learning experience that makes your time with us a special part of your college education.
“Leaders must get comfortable with living in a state of continually becoming, a perpetual beta mode. Leaders that stay on top of society’s changes do so by being receptive and able to learn. In a time where the half-life of any skill is about five years, leaders bear a responsibility to renew their perspective in order to secure the relevance of their organizations.”
The Harvard Business Review conducted a study (https://hbr.org/2015/10/the-best-leaders-are-constant-learners) to identify the degree in which leaders must adapt to their surroundings at the workplace, in their community or at home.
Leadership is not a place in line. It is about action with direction that draws people in, makes them feel a part of the outcome. When that involvement becomes contagious — in a positive way — it will lead to an exponential growth of the organization. You only have to look at successful organizations to see there is a complete buy-in of their values, their missions and goals. The organization’s leadership pushes forward with ideas, and then the workforce grasps the idea and makes it reality. In the case of a small and nimble organization like your Santa Cruz Area Chamber — our volunteers (member company representatives) and our energetic UCSC interns are part of our growth and future success.
The best leaders are those who continually learn from their peers, their colleagues in their respective industries, from friends and yes, our youth. In my own professional experience, I never stop learning because I never stop asking questions. To showcase that leadership means being open to change, new ideas and developing a core group of dedicated individuals who share that vision.
Sustainable competitive advantage for your Chamber depends on having people that know how to build relationships, seek information, make sense of observations and share ideas through (an intelligent) use of new technologies and straight forward communication.
In other words, people cannot learn all they need to learn within the hallowed walls of their office. They must look beyond the corporate campus, university campus, and beyond their computer screens. They must learn through action learning: the act of real people working through real problems, and then reflecting on the process to learn from it.
My focus this week is on the value of our youth. For the Chamber to be really successful, we need to embrace our next generation of leaders. What better way than to provide a path for these young students to be a part of our Chamber’s mission to produce and promote economic vitality for our region. We are fortunate to be linked to a very special community and an outstanding University. Every quarter, a group of young women and men help the Chamber with internal administrative tasks, updating our website data, attending meetings and scanning the community for interesting things to report about. The Chamber can be their learning center giving them a first-hand opportunity to be a part of the Santa Cruz business community. My job is to learn from them as well as it is my responsibility to provide each intern ‘a teachable moment’ that sparks their interest — not only about the Chamber, but also about our community and life. On our website, we provide a short glimpse about them. Take a look here: http://www.santacruzchamber.org/interns.html Take a moment to stop in to meet them personally - I think you will be impressed with their talents.
Taking the Road Less Traveled By — one of my favorite writers, Robert Frost said: “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and it has made all the difference.”
Thank you Mireya Avila, Josh Ebadi, Chelsea Thompson and Ilan Zur for taking the Chamber road less traveled. We will provide you that action learning experience that makes your time with us a special part of your college education.