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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service – Region 5 Leadership Program Kick-off
December 18, 2012
>> Good afternoon, Region 5! Happy to be with you today. How are you, Bubba? Good!
for those folks that are in the field [realtime stream paused] we have about 12 people here
in the Regional Office let me not be any less clear the team is
invested in this and we're here for you. You'll see a list of who we all are. The lead your
life certificate program is one of two programs. We have the supervisor series we're going
to be doing as well, probably once every two months, I think our first one is going to
be in February, and then the certificate program grew as a result of listening to employees,
right? Employees said, yes, NCTC has the stepping up to leadership program for 11s and 12s,
advanced development leadership program for 13s and above, and then the pathways program
existed here for about a couple, three, four years, a great program. But that was for GS9s
and above only. So we heard from many people, first of all, a lot of those spots are very
competitive. You know, just because you ally for some of them doesn't apply for some
them doesn't mean you'll get in. You may never get in. I unfortunately know some folks that
have been trying to get into ALDP for five, six years. It's not anybody's fault. It's
the virtue of the program. It's a great program, right? But in order to take advantage of the
fact that everybody wants a lot of people want leadership training, we decided in Region 5,
the Director said let's get a team together and let's make training available for any
and all human beings in Region 5. So that's what we've done.
I'm just going to step you through the program, and the reason we chose that as a team was,
you know, whether you want to be a leader, you want to be the next Dan Ashe, or you just
want to be a leader in your own community, your own household, whatever it is, this is
whatever you want it to be. So it's very flexible and dynamic.
So, the lead your life program. What's in it for you? It says it here, but most importantly,
you're going to understand the elements of leadership and you're going to gain some competencies
and you're going to gain experience. Hopefully you're going to feel empowered by the end
of this to proactively lead your lives, whether that's professional, hopefully both professional
and personal, and you're going to take action to demonstrate and model that behavior every
day. By the way, before I go any further, stop
me any time. I'm just sort of talking off the slides. This is very informal. Certainly
I'll be responding on a regular basis. Okay? So this is what's in it for you. If you take
on this program, hopefully this is how you're going to be embarking on the rest of your
life with even more. And who should participate? If you could look in that mirror, I think
it's pretty obvious. All of us. All of us should participate. Again, if we want to live
a more purposeful life, why not. Why not? And what do you need to sign up? No fancy
application form here. Just give us an e mail saying you're committed to the program. It's
a one year program. Make sure your supervisor is on board. Very important. And please copy
your supervisor when you send me the e mail so that we're double sure that the supervisor
remembers that they're on board. The journey of a thousand miles must begin
with a single step, and so I applaud every person taking a step. Just taking that step
to come and listen, to start doing the journey, is just fantastic. I mean, it means that you
really care about your life and what's to come.
Requirements... because this is probably what everybody wants to know, and I want to explain
a little bit about the requirements, too. So, the three core courses are Leadership
Challenge workshop, the crucial conversation. Now, if you you know, this region has brought
a lot of these courses to the Regional Office and other places throughout the region often.
If you've already taken, no reason to. You've already started to fill some of your requirements.
So if you've taken crucial conversations in the last couple, three years, crucial conversations
is now done. Leadership Challenge workshop. That's been here often as well. These courses
are also held at NCTC. So what's going to happen is, depending upon how many of you
have enroll, I will be figuring out with the team what courses we still need to get either
to NCTC to the Regional Office or somewhere in between. In other words, if 55 people need
Leadership Challenge workshop, never have taken it, course being held this year, then
we'll figure out how to get a contractor to bring that course somewhere. Again, this is
the coordination role of where everybody can get to. Or maybe a couple of times.
The responsibility for paying for these courses is the individual station. So you're part
of the course. So let's say it's let's say the Leadership Challenge workshop is $350
per person for the workshop, you know, when we divvy it up. That will come out of station
budgets. I know that was probably a big question. So all of those questions will come out of
the station budgets. Were you going to ask a question?
>> [ INAUDIBLE ] >> Okay. So, yes, those are those are the
major costs, if you will. Again, some of the if they're at NCTC, you know completely
free except for your travel. Right? So like if you're within driving distance of NCTC
and you can get to a crucial conversation class or diversity class there if it's other
than NCTC, it's station funds. It shouldn't be a tremendous amount of money, though. But
we would have to see how many people need these things before I can help you identify
exactly a number of us had there was one here in the Regional Office last year. We
had a day of diversity training. That would qualify. Any other questions on that? Yes?
>> What about some certificates or whatever to [ INAUDIBLE ] know that you've taken
a course. >> There will be a certificate oh, you mean
>> [ INAUDIBLE ] >> Really?
>> [ INAUDIBLE ] >> We'll have to look into that. I thought
I remembered receiving things when I took the courses, but I'm sure we can look it up.
I mean, I don't think you're going to say r I did this and you're not going to say,
I don't believe you we'll figure it out. Somebody's got DOI Learn has it, somebody
has it. But we will have to make sure that everybody does have all the requirements.
That's minor. That's minor. Any other questions? Anything from the field?
Nope? Do you have a question? Greg has a question. Greg is one of our team members. Deborah Reynolds
is also in the audience and she's another team member. I don't know if there is
>> I just want to remind folks online you can chime in on the chat room and our own
Tiffany Holtz has been chiming in and answering some of the questions online as one of our
team members. We encourage you online folks to chime in with anything you want.
>> Does is there anything that bears repeating? >> Sure. Folks want to know how to basically
there was a question about how to sign up. >> Can everybody online see the answers to
Tiffany's is that [internet feed paused] like
>> Yes, they can all see it in the chat room. Tiffany is doing her team member job. [internet
feed paused] [internet feed paused] so we've set up BLOGs
for all the TED talks. One. team members will be monitoring that TED talk
and either doing provocative questions for the participants or and/or monitoring to
make sure people have participated and that you saw the TED talk and hopefully you're
getting something valuable out of them. Once you're start you'll probably want to do more
than three because they're great. >> Would you like to go free form on questions
from the field? We have a great one. It's an awesome question for us, the team about
lifestyle and commitment. So this person says: Hey, as a single mom it is difficult for me
to attend training unless there is some sort of day care available like at NCTCTC. Is there
anything at the Regional Office. Maybe we want to address the lifestyle and busy lives
of people being in this program. >> That's good. We talked about a little bit
when we were talking about shadowing and other assignments. Excellent question. Thank you
for it. Yes, certainly, NCTC is the end all, be all for day care. Aren't we lucky to have
such a great facility. As far as something in the Regional Office, I have a feeling we
have other single moms and other people who have their children in day care. I don't know
that I could answer right off the bat. But if we do figure out we need a training here,
I know that we could find out how we might facilitate at least connect you with places
that would take a child for a time frame. That's the only thing I can think of right
now. anybody in the audience have any ideas on
>> [ INAUDIBLE ] >> Let's give her a microphone. Thank you,
Greg. >> I know a little bit about going to NCTC
with my son and that's kind of a funny story I won't get into. There's a lot of state requirements
as far as different vaccines that are required, updated doctor medical record form that
needs to be done. So you can do it, but you need to plan ahead and probably make a visit
to your pediatrician. also, some states, I was going to take my
son to Florida a course, and some states actually require you to visit a doctor in state, which
can really throw a little monkey wrench into things.
>> So it's yeah, so Gale just said maybe we need to put together a focus group on this.
I think that's a great idea. >> Sara, being on the team I knew we discussed
this topic about sometimes being on a detail or away for a month is impossible for some
people and precludes you from being in a leadership program but I think we really did design this
curriculum to be heavily self guided, open on the time frames, a lot of it is online
stuff you do. Isn't it true there's a lot of built in flexibility knowing full well
we're not expecting people to be away from duty stations for extended periods of time
or their families? >> Absolutely. Greg is right on. We discussed
that like maybe more than most things in our groups. But what what this person was asking
about was, I think, the two courses. Because even a diversity course you can do online.
I have checked into that. It's not like to you have to go someplace. The crucial conversations
and Leadership Challenge workshop, those are the only two that don't offer the complete
flexibility that the rest of the program does. The rest of the program is computer based.
It's on the phone. It's in your own field station. We're suggesting if you can't travel,
if you're a single mom and have no day care, why not do another person's job in your field
station, which, again, is a little later in the group. So, thanks, Greg. Those two courses.
One is two days two and a half days and one is three days. So that would be something
that, you know, whoever asked, certainly we'll try to help you, but maybe some in your
own world can also help if we know far enough advance and we can help you plan dates. So
we'll do our best. Gale, were you going to say something? No. Okay.
and that person should contact any of the team members for more guidance. That's one
thing we want to do, is make sure you know that we're all here for you and if you have
a questions or concern or whatever comes up, any one of us is available, e mail phone.
Now we will little I chat. If you see we're online, go for it.
so we did the TED talk and the BLOGs. That will be ongoing. Then we're going to have
readings and discussion. There are going to be nine books listed
what's the matter? >> [ INAUDIBLE ]
>> It's an excellent book. Isn't it? I bet you'll want to read all nine. I just can feel
it in my brain. We have even a longer list, and we'll put that longer list on there. After
you're done these requirements may seem like a lot right now. I don't know if it does
or not to you. If it does, once you get going on all of this stuff, you're like, whoa, this
is so cool, and you want to keep going. TED talks, the readings, the whole thing. You're
just going to get hooked. I know that's my vision. Everybody's going to be an addict
for leadership. So, anyway junkies. So this is actually these are four of the
nine books that we're requesting. You only have to read three. Then we will again, team
members will be hosting discussions, whether it's WebEx or whatever medium. I don't know
right now. It will be three times a year. So if you read the books early and you want
to get them discussed early, I think we'll have it in April, then July, and September.
We're going to spread it out throughout the year. Again, trying to make this as flexible
as possible. Okay? So just three books. Great books. Great books.
Writing assignments. This is all explained, by the way, if you guys haven't printed these
things out and you want to pass them over, in your requirements page that was sent out
by Deb rock last week, all the requirements are there. We have three writing assignments.
One is like your definition of leadership. Again, that will be I would imagine towards
the end of the program. It could be a fun exercise to do it now and then do it again
later. See how it's changed. Leadership interview. We want you to hang
out with somebody you like their style of leadership, you're attracted to it, and ask
them some really good open ended questions and find out how do they juggle everything
as being a leader. We want you to write that up. Again, it's all spelled out in your requirements
page. And then we want you to rewrite your Individual
Development Plan. You might be rewriting it right now for this next fiscal year, but also
after you're through with your leadership development certificate program, perhaps you're
going to want to rewrite it for the next fiscal year.
By the way, talking about the classes and the flexibility, et cetera, we're doing it
over two fiscal years, if you notice. We're starting in January. We're doing calendar
year, but it actually goes into '14 for the fiscal year. So if money is a little tight
on your station or whatever, you could break up those courses that do cost a little bit
of money if it's really a factor and you not being able to take them and put it down for
fiscal year '14. Okay? Yes so those are three writing assignments.
This is one of the really cool ones, I guess, is the leadership experience. This is maybe
where we spent most of our energy thinking how do we make it as flexible as possible.
We're not telling you to go do a month detail anywhere. We're not telling you to shadow
five different people. We're not we're not telling you anything. We're telling you to
think about your own life and decide what's the best for you, and that could be you
could take on being a PTA President for a year. You could be a selectman in your own
town. You could become a board member for a friends group. Whatever you think would
give you the leadership skills that you're looking for. Do a job swap with somebody.
Somebody said, perform a stretch assignment. That's explained in there. Put yourself in
somebody else's shoes altogether and sort of take on their role and see how you learn
about being a leader when you're in that kind of situation. Again, in the community, in
your own field station and in adjoining in an adjoining field station, coming into
the Regional Office, going to Washington. Whatever suits you. Again, all of our team
members are here to assist you. If you want to pass something by one of us, get our input,
if you don't know where to start for whatever reason, call us. We'll be here to help you
try to figure that out. Any other questions coming up? No? Okay.
So, at the end of all of this we want you to share your experience. Again, the media
the type of medium is up to you, but we want the whole program to be encapsulated into
a nice package of some sort so we know how you have changed over time, what experiences
you've gained, what skill sets you've gained, what you feel more competent in, and this
is always it's like filling out your resume for a job. Sometimes we should do that even
if we're not going for a job. You start filling out your resume and realize all the things
you've accomplished or everything you've done. You sort of forget that on your day to day.
It's the same thing on this type of project. If you reflect on everything you've learned
in the last year it will be for you as well as for us to make sure you got what you needed,
but it will be for you to say, oh, wow, look at everything I learned over the last year,
and then and we will know, too, talk about evaluation and monitoring, we want to know,
was this the best program since sliced bread that we thought it was going to be? That's
what we thought as a team of 12 people. But, you know, the proof is going to be in those
people that participate and tell us how was it, and this is going to be one great way
to know that. >> Did I miss it? What is the develop digital
account? What is that? >> That's probably Sara's typo. That's probable
pea what that is. Oh, digital account. I just meant digitally. Video. Computer. I called
it a digital. I know we're not videoing anymore. That's an old technology. What is the new
technology? What's the word? I don't know. I don't know what it is. But, I mean you
know, it's to do using a computer or digital equipment, yes. Thank you. That was a good question.
I sort of got ahead of myself. That was to share your experience on your shadowing, your
detail or whatever you choose to do for your practicum, if you will. That's what I was
talking about. Then the next slide, actually, was the Capstone project. So I sort of got
ahead of myself. So there's two productions you have to do or two things you have to
do. You have to share your experience, whether it was in the community or with others somehow.
I know this sounds a little ambiguous, but we're trying to make it flexible, trying to
make it so you can be creative. It's how you communicate the best. Or how you want to now
challenge yourself. Maybe you're a great writer and you enjoy writing, but you can't handle
standing up in front of people. Maybe you want to give a presentation in front of somebody.
So, again, we want you to challenge yourself throughout. I see some smiles. Yeah, I can
relate to that, she says. Then the Capstone project is what I was really
talking about a couple minutes ago, which was we want to know how the whole program
worked for you, and, again, we want you to choose how you do that. But some of the things
we want you to address are how did the certificate program impact you? What's different? How
are you different one year later? How did you grow? And what's your awareness level
of all sorts of different subject matters? You're going to be amazed at what this program
is going to open yourself up to. I mean, we had two hours with Benjamin ZANDA, people
are walking around going, how fascinating, and all sorts of things. So, you know, just
spending that two hours in front of him has done so much for so many of us. I've heard
people reflect about how it reminded them of their dads and lessons they had forgotten
and things. So that was one thing. Just think of all the components that are going to do
that for you. So, before I wrap anything up, I want to talk about the mentoring relationship.
Some of you that have been in the region quite a while, like years, can remember we had a
formal mentoring program a number of years ago. You know, it was mixed. I mean, there
were some really good successes, and there were some mediocre okays and there were some
just like it just didn't work for. And that's what happens in any kind of program, one.
But, you know, a mentoring program, if you think about, what is a mentor? A mentor is
someone that you think highly of. Again, they have what you want or need. Or both. A mentor
is somebody that you're going to be able to trust. That's a big one. Right? You want somebody
you can talk to and they they're there for you. You can be vulnerable with them. All
right? They're there to guide you. They're there to give you feedback. They're there
to nudge you, to coach you. So having a great mentor is not all that easy,
to be quite honest, but I believe that anybody who wants a mentor, and we all do, anybody
who wants a mentor, you can have one, or two, ore three. We want you to get one for the
year, but we'd love it if it lasted your lifetime. Wouldn't that be great, to find somebody this
year that you can relate to for a long, long time, even if it's not a lifetime?
Sometimes people find it difficult to ask people for what they want. It's part of leadership.
Okay? You have to ask for what you want. That's being a leader, a leader of your own life.
So if you do have an issue or concern about asking somebody, again, you've got 12 people
that are willing to sort of help you find that person, but we urge you to take all the
first steps. Look at people. Think about people. It doesn't have to be in the agency. Okay?
It could be in your community. It could be in your church. It could be in your synagogue.
It could be wherever life takes you on a regular basis, if there's somebody you feel strongly
about. You could have two mentors, one professional and one personal. But if you can find somebody
that will help guide you through this whole program, and maybe you're going to want to
do more discussions about the readings with them, again, maybe or maybe they have
maybe they have the job that someday X amount of years from now you want. You know? But
it's a really how many people have a mentor in this group? Three people out of a number.
And is it everything I said it is? Yes. Okay. So we want to help you do that. We want to
then you do that. Again, show your leadership by asking someone by the way, little tips
about mentoring or getting a mentor. People are flattered. So don't hesitate. They may
say they don't have time or the energy, and good for them for fessing up early and not
just taking it on, and you might want to do that, you might want to really ask them, I'm
going to be coming and chatting with you a lot. So do you have the time? Because that's
what they're going to be there for. But don't not ask somebody because you're afraid that
they won't want to or they're too high up on the chain whatever. Don't do any assumptions
or limiting beliefs. Just go for it. But then do make sure that they understand what you're
asking for, you're asking for guidance, you're asking for a confidential relationship because
your mentor needs to be somebody that you can trust and that they won't, you know, betray
your trust. Anyway, so, mentoring great. Do you want to
say anything more about mentoring, Gale, since you have a mentor? Can we give you a mic?
I just think that's a notable. >> I think the key is finding the right match.
Because I've had mentors and I've had mentors, and I have one right now that's making a huge
difference in my life, and I've had ones that were well meaning and very nice people but
didn't quite provide the right match. The other thing to be sure you know is if the
person you choose first doesn't quite fit, you may need to think about it and find a
different fit. >> Good.
>> When you find the right match, it's amazing. >> So if they're not the right fit, it's not
you, it's them. >> No, I think
>> Boyfriends and mentors girlfriends and mentors.
>> It's the match. It's not either person. >> It's the match. You're right.
>> So you want to find the right chemistry regardless of people.
>> You could even say I'm interviewing you to be my mentor but I'm interviewing three
other people as well. >> That's a good idea.
>> Try them out. So, you know, really, that's the spiel. Any
more questions? What needs more clarifying or clarifying clarification. Anything
from the field? Or did I just say everything perfectly?
>> [ INAUDIBLE ] >> Yeah, right.
Let me remind you, these are the team members. Okay? So we've got Brian out of Cape May;
Anitra, Green Lake National Fish Hatchery; Aubrey Hall, Chincoteague National Wildlife
Refuge, Shane Hanlon, ecological services; Kyla Hastie, in external affairs; Tiffany
Holt, who is doing our stuff online right now from refuges; Paul Pfifer, ecological
services; Deb Reynolds in the audience, migratory birds; Stephen Smith at White Sulfur Springs;
Greg Thompson "Bubba" host extraordinaire; and Kate Toniolo, also in refuges. So any
and all of us. We've had two subteams. So the people that were really, really influential
in this program were Tiffany Holt, Kate Toniolo and Aubrey Hall and Stephen Smith. We were
sort of the subteam that worked on the certificate program. But everybody and anybody is there
to assist you. Once you do register and make that commitment, have your supervisors, et cetera,
you'll be pointed towards we'll give you a welcome letter and we'll get you onto a
SharePoint site so you can see everything you're going to need, the list of the books,
the list of the TED talks, the times we're going to be hosting the discussion groups
for the different books, and then we'll probably also have a space that you can share information
about what you're doing for your shadow or your detail. And another thing that we can
help with. If you have a particular interest and you don't even know how to get started
to do a shadow in that assignment or in that program or some kind of work detail or
whatever, that's what we're here for. Call us any time.
Yay? Anything else? Okay. Thank you all for streaming in with us and all those people
in the Regional Office, and this will be archived, and, Greg, how will they how will they access
this after it's archived? Hold on. I'm going to bring Greg a
>> We can send a link out to the folks and they can watch this archive afterwards, and
there's some exciting new internal communications technology coming online for the region in
2013. So there may be a way to click right off your desktop to see such a thing soon.
Stay tuned. We'll send out a link with the archive.
>> All right. Thanks, all. [ APPLAUSE ]
>> Stop!