Debbie Laskey's Blog: Introducing the #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 on #DebbieLaskeysBlog

Last year, I launched a Spring Leadership Series to think about leadership in nontraditional ways. As 2024 continued, I presented additional ways to think about leadership during my Olympics Leadership Series and Holiday Leadership Series. With a new year upon us, I've invited 25 thought leaders to share their responses to five questions related to team-building, reading, and leadership.

My #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 begins today, the first day of Spring, with my series introduction post sharing my responses to the series questions. Then, the series will appear on my blog the next two Mondays during March on March 24th and 31st. It will then continue on my blog each Monday and Friday during April, May, and June with the series recap scheduled for June 20th, the first day of summer.

Before we begin, I'd like to applaud two special individuals for providing the inspiration for this series. First, big applause goes to Erika Andersen, a leadership expert and author who I've had the pleasure of knowing for nearly 15 years, and she's appeared on my blog 12 times since 2011. She wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders," and that article serves as the core of the series as its first question. Second, I also applaud Joseph Lalonde, a leadership expert and author of a book called REEL LEADERSHIP, for planting the seeds for last year's Spring Leadership Series on my blog. After I read Joe's book, I started looking at movies as well as works of fiction, TV shows, and TV characters with "leadership-tinted glasses."

And now, to introduce this year's series, MY responses follow below.

QUESTION: In Erika Andersen's article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders," she compared gardening to management and leadership. What are your thoughts, or was there something that stood out from the article?

DEBBIE LASKEY: As leadership expert Erika Andersen wrote, "After a few seasons, I finally figured out that you can't actually make a plant grow. You can prepare the soil, buy the right plant for the space, create the optimum conditions for it to thrive – and then see what happens. As a manager, I came to the analogous conclusion: nothing I did would make employees grow. It became clear to me that, as in gardening, I could only establish a good environment, get the right "plant" for the workplace and the job, and create the optimum conditions for him or her to thrive."

As a supervisor, I have always provided the training, resources, feedback, and open-door policy for my team members. However, to my dismay, those elements are not always welcomed. Despite being reminded several times about a deadline, one employee once told me that she had not finished her project because she thought the deadline was a "suggestion." Therefore, I agree with Erika that sometimes, creating the best environment and providing the tools to do a job simply don't yield the thriving result that everyone wants, because as Erika wrote, "Even the best managers have employees who don’t work out."

QUESTION: What was the most recent example of inspiring leadership that made an impact on you?

DEBBIE LASKEY: There are two recent examples: The legacy of President Jimmy Carter and the election of Claudia Sheinbaum as Mexico's first female president last October.

Former President Jimmy Carter passed away on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. Born in 1924, James Earl Carter Jr. was an American politician and humanitarian who served from 1977 to 1981 as the 39th President of the United States.

According to President Joe Biden, "President Carter was an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian. Over six decades, we had the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But what's extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well. With Carter's compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us. He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe."

Habitat for Humanity will forever be linked to Carter, because since 1984, the Carter Work Project took the former first couple across the United States and around the world to 14 countries, where he (and wife Rosalyn) helped to build, renovate, or repair more than 4,300 houses alongside more than 100,000 volunteers.

Carter's funeral took place on January 9, 2025. As President Biden said in his eulogy, "Throughout his life, Jimmy Carter showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works, a good and faithful servant of God and of the people. Today, many think he was from a bygone era. But in reality, he saw well into the future. A white Southern Baptist who led civil rights. A decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace. A brilliant nuclear engineer who led nuclear proliferation. A hard-working farmer who championed conservation and clean energy. The president who redefined a relationship with the vice president. And as you know, Jimmy Carter also established a model of post-presidency by making a powerful difference as a private citizen in America, and I might add, as you all know, around the world. Through it all, (he showed us how) to make every minute of our time here on Earth count...To young people, to anyone, in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter's example."

In October 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum was elected and took office as Mexico's first female president in the nation's more than 200 years of independence. Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become the country's first female president and the country's first Jewish head of state. According to Reuters, "Victory for Sheinbaum is a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture and home to the world's second largest Roman Catholic population, which for years pushed more traditional values and roles for women. (Let's not forget, women have only voted in Mexico since 1953.) Sheinbaum has a complicated path ahead. She must balance promises to increase popular welfare policies while inheriting a hefty budget and low economic growth...And among the new President's challenges will be tense negotiations with the United States over the huge flows of US-bound migrants crossing Mexico and security cooperation over drug trafficking at a time when the US fentanyl epidemic rages."

QUESTION: What is your favorite team-building activity, and why?

DEBBIE LASKEY: Volunteering as a group for a nonprofit is my favorite team-building activity because it is a win-win: employees learn how to work together in an out-of-the-office environment, and a non-profit gets much-needed volunteers - and possibly donors. Examples include building a house, cleaning up a park or beach, planting trees at a community garden, reading books to children at a local library or school, cooking meals at a senior/memory care facility, serving meals at a homeless shelter, leading job skill workshops at a domestic violence shelter, assembling care packages for members of the military, volunteering time at an animal shelter, etc.

QUESTION: Which book is on the top of your to-be-read pile, and why?

DEBBIE LASKEY: During the last year, I read and enjoyed ALL THE SINNERS BLEED and RAZORBLADE TEARS by S.A. Cosby. The writing style, the use of language, the plots, and the characters were engaging and thought-provoking. So I decided that I also want to read his book BLACKTOP WASTELAND. It's marketed as a book about racial tension, crime, and family; and according to NPR, "Blacktop Wasteland is the kind of book that should be part of every conversation about why we need diverse books...Call shotgun, buckle up, and take a dangerous ride with Cosby, but keep the radio down because he has something to tell you."

QUESTION: In the past year, has a TV show, film, or work of fiction stood out as a result of its emphasis on leadership?

DEBBIE LASKEY: My film choice is WICKED, and my TV show choice is THE DIPLOMAT.

According to Variety, "Universal's adaptation of Act One of the popular Broadway musical was number one in North America with $114 million from 3,888 theaters over its first weekend...Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu and starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, landed in theaters after more than a decade in development and a promotional push (including 400 brand partnerships) that rivaled the ubiquity of Barbie. Universal needed the song-and-dance film to strike a chord with moviegoers because Wicked: Part Two, which chronicles the musical's second act, arrives on the big screen in November 2025. The two films cost a combined $300 million to produce, not including the mega marketing budget."

Two leadership lessons stood out from the film:

LEADERSHIP LESSON #1: BEWARE OF TITLES

Madame Morrible, the head teacher at Shiz University, called Elphaba "The Wicked Witch," but at the time, that statement was not true. Since titles are not always accurate depictions of people, one does not need a title to be a leader.

LEADERSHIP LESSON #2: BE DIFFERENT

Elphaba knows she's green and different, and she happily tells people, "I'm not afraid to be different." This demonstrated the importance of being genuine, of being one's true self. As a leader, do not duplicate the actions of other people because your followers will see right through you.

Debbie Laskey's Blog

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Introducing the #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 on #DebbieLaskeysBlog

SHARE THIS: A leadership lesson from WICKED was "beware of titles." Madame Morrible called Elphaba "The Wicked Witch," but at the time, that wasn't true. Since titles are not always accurate, one does not need a title to be a leader. ~@DebbieLaskeyMBA #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

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