For: the ambitious person figuring out how to lead, grow, and intentionally build a fulfilling life - one step up at time. From: someone on the journey too. Released every Thursday at 4:30pm CST.
👣 Step 31: Diversity and Challenge Networks
👣 Step 31: Diversity and Challenge NetworksMy Goodwill Senior Leader Program kicked off this week, and our cohort group is truly phenomenal and diverse. 22 people from so many different backgrounds. White. Black. Latina. Native American. Gay. Straight. Lesbian. PhDs. Masters. Non-college grads. Social workers. Higher-Ed professionals. Military vets. Catholics. Protestants. Non-Christians. A Canadian. An ex-Yugoslavian war refugee. A Finn who lives 100 miles from the Russia/Ukraine war. A Venezuelan immigrant who’s the daughter of a drug dealer and a drug addict. All people. All good people. All people wanting to make Goodwill and our communities better. Our discussions have been dynamic, engaging, productive, and meaningful. The perspective everyone provides has made our group better. We are better than the sum of our parts because of our diversity. In short, diversity is our strength. This truth is core to who I am. It's even the ethos of Sigma Chi. "Different temperaments, talents, and convictions." While longer than my typical writing, I've included the Spirit of Sigma Chi below. Please read: "The Spirit of Sigma Chi, as conceived by the Founders more than 170 years ago yet visible and alive today, is based on the theory that friendship among members sharing a common belief in an ideal and possessing different temperaments, talents, and convictions is superior to friendship among members having the same temperaments, talents, and convictions, and that genuine friendship can be maintained without surrendering the principle of individuality or sacrificing one's personal judgement." Read that again. Genuinely, read that again. "Friendship among members sharing a common belief in an ideal and possessing different temperaments, talents, and convictions is superior to friendship among members having the same temperaments, talents, and convictions..." People of different personalities, skills, and perspectives that share the same common goal. This is superior to people who are all the same. And even further: "genuine friendship can be maintained without surrendering the principle of individuality or sacrificing one's personal judgement." You can have different people working toward the same goal without anyone sacrificing who they are. In his book "Think Again" (a book and concept I could talk about for days), renowned organizational psychologist Adam Grant talks about the concept of "challenge networks" - a trusted group of diverse people who provide you with radical transparency and feedback to help you improve. Having a challenge network is critical to unlocking your full potential as a person and a leader. Goodwill SLP Cohort 42 is my challenge network. Sigma Chi is my challenge network. Leadership Lafayette Class 38 is my challenge network. the705 is my challenge network. Look around at your life. Do you have diversity? Do you have a challenge network? See you next Thursday, Steppers. We will succeed, Grayson ​graysonstepanek.com​ Song of the Week:
Sam released a new album recently, Broken View, and it got me going back to his project Restless Mind. Indigo is a perfect song to just sing with your family and friends while chilling around the fire or sitting on the couch. Beautiful melodies and harmonies, heartfelt lyrics, and a solid song structure. Sam is one my favorites in the modern country scene. |
​
Grayson Stepanek
For: the ambitious person figuring out how to lead, grow, and intentionally build a fulfilling life - one step up at time. From: someone on the journey too. Released every Thursday at 4:30pm CST.
👣 Step 39: Who Knows You? At last week's social, I asked some new 705ers why they joined. Both mentioned gaining new business (they work in sales-type positions), but they also mentioned expanding their general network. My first piece of advice pertained to value: what value can you bring to others? That others-focused mentality. Give more than you take (I could talk about that endlessly). My second piece of advice (and the focus of today's newsletter) was reframing networking to this: "It's...
👣 Step 38: Get In Luck's Way Yesterday was my two year anniversary at Goodwill Acadiana, and I was reflecting on my journey so far. I've gotten lucky. To have a Director position at 24 straight out of grad school is wild. To know so many well-respected community leaders, have developed so many skills, and had amazing opportunities both personally and professionally. I'm very grateful. Yeah, I worked hard, but I was also lucky. And those two actually go hand in hand. How so? Let's talk about...
👣 Step 37: Turning Juice into Sauce A wise BestBuy worker once said: "Juice is temporary. Anyone can obtain the juice... but the sauce - the sauce is forever" Shoutout bro. An absolute gem of a video, and he's 1,000% right. Now how you do use this knowledge to your advantage? We're going to replace juice and sauce with some more "universal" terms - hype and loyalty. And we're going to talk personal branding and how you can turn hype into loyalty. Turning juice into sauce. Hype = short-term...