Right Now Monday; Servant Leadership and an Art Adventure

“The goal of many leaders is to get people to think more highly of the leader.  The goal of a great leader is to help people to think more highly of themselves.”  ~  J. Carla Nortcutt

Right here . . . Right Now . . . this Monday (better late than never) . . . I feel grateful.  Grateful for the opportunity to have attended a wonderful course, to be placed in an awesome group and to learn more about serving others, leadership and loving on people.  More about Right Now Monday can be found here.

Recently, I completed Series II of a Servant Leadership Course put on by the county.  It has only gotten better and better with each session.  Of course I have to put a shout out to our incredible leaders . . . who have added to my life professionally by inspiring me to be a better employee, leader, servant and more.  Also personally they have touched my life!  For that I am grateful!

The course is an excellent one and I’m so grateful that it’s offered by the county for employees, managers and everyone in between.  This has spurred me on to new heights, given me an even greater understanding and even calmed some nerves when facing disappointments or difficulties on the job (and off for that matter).  Much of the curriculum is based on the following . . . http://https://greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/

The class isn’t all ‘classroom’ but a mixture of conversation, problem solving activities, activities and exercises and more!

Our last session we were assigned a group project on ‘Why and How We Serve’.  I was blessed with a wonderful diverse and awesome group (consisting of four of us).  One works in finance (loves and is good at numbers), the other serving with heart in the adoption agency and the guy in our group a nice one who is smart working on analytics and epidemiology.  Then there’s me, the token Sheriff’s Department employee.

We came together and we all created our own panels that spoke of our individual desires and means of serving.  We then created a collaborative canvas depicting what we have in common as people, employees and a county family.  I loved our time together and we worked on our collaborative project at Starbucks.  I’m sure we weren’t the first one to do an art project at the likes of Starbucks.

Presentation day was upon us and we had decided we’d be a part of the ‘human’ collage.  We each wore a color that depicted where we worked; blue for water (our gentleman in the group works a lot with statistics on drowning); red for adoption and love; I wore a different shade of blue representing the city I am assigned to; and of course green for money/finances.  We also pasted words on our clothing that depicted how and why we serve.  The financial wonder pinned money to her clothes which was pretty awesome.  We went all out and I loved that everyone in the whole group put their best foot forward and equally used their awesome gifts to contribute.  It was a lovely experience.  We even plan on getting together for lunch in the future and having a reunion.  We are one family you know.  The title of our project was Collage of One.  The O in One is the county orange . . . Orange County.

I wanted to share as I thought it turned out fantastically!  Everyone in the group discussed, assisted artistically, shared in the presentation and we moved as one unit.  Each of us so unique but unified!!!

I will leave you with a couple great quotes about Servant Leadership;

• Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel.  If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.  ~ Sam Walton
• I don’t want my life to be defined by what is etched on a tombstone.  I want it to be defined by what is etched in the lives and hearts of those I’ve touched. ~ Steve Maraboli
• The Greatest Gift you can give someone is your time.  Because when you give your time, you are giving a portion of your life that you will never get back. ~ Rick Warren

Thank you group and thank you instructors . . . for your heart and time as well as your wonderful example of Servant Leadership!

My art journaling prompt   . . . Right here, Right now . . . who is a leader you look up to in your life?  A mentor?  An incredible example of servant leadership?