I’m a writer, blogger, educator, humorist, and a graduate of Leader Effectiveness Training. My “other” blog out there in the wilds of the Internet has more followers than I can actually get my head around most days, which I find immensely gratifying. So when Michelle Adams of Gordon Training International asked me to contribute blogs to the LET site focused on leadership training, I leaped at the chance to join in the fun.
I found the concepts, tools, and skills that I learned in leadership training (lo, these many moons ago) to be not only incredibly useful in my professional life, but also valuable in other ways. Family interactions, social situations, and friendships aren’t all that different from workplace communication, when it comes right down to it. We’re all human beings, and human relations tend to get messy sometimes. When they do, LET has given me a language to describe, assess, and (usually) clean up the mess.
Now, it may be that readers of these entries won’t share some of my opinions and values and beliefs. That’s OK. While my Facebook profile lists my politics as “Shrieking Screaming Bleeding Heart Liberal with a Side of Socialism,” being a graduate of LET lets me converse with people on the opposite side of the political horseshoe in an effort to understand where they’re coming from. While my religious beliefs are…well, nil…leadership training taught me how to active-listen and find areas of commonality with believers of almost any stripe.
And the cool thing is, if those hypothetical readers with differing opinions are also familiar with the same set of skills, concepts, and tools, we can talk about our differences without anybody getting hot under the collar. It might not boost ratings on a Sunday talk show, but it might get us to a point of, if not acceptance…well, at least a place of tolerance.
Actually, as American society seems to have fractured apart and ossified into extreme camps that appoint representatives to scream at each other during a neverending 24/7 news cycle, one of my treasured fantasies is that someday there could be a place in the media (or online) where the ground rules of discussion followed the no-lose Gordon Model.
As a Guest Opinionator, I may blog about something I’ve seen in the news recently, or a personal interaction I’ve had, or a (hopefully amusing) experience from my deep past. The only unifying thread will be that I’ll be returning over and over to what I’ve learned as a graduate of LET, and how it’s helped me to view and interact with the world.
Now the disclaimer. I’ll be blogging as me, just little ol’ me. An opinionated, sassy lass, with opinions and values and beliefs that are mine and mine alone. Not an officially endorsed spokesperson, representative, or anything else of Gordon Training International and LET.
Let the blogs begin!