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 relating to team-building, reading, and leadership. My #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 began the first day of Spring and continues through 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 13 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."
For today's post, I'd like to introduce Rebecca Rucker, a psychotherapist based in Houston, Texas. We met via a virtual book club, Leaders Who Fiction led by Melanie Bell. Rebecca belongs to the Leaders Who Fiction book club because she enjoys the quality of the discussions about leadership that transpires among the book club members. When not reading fiction, she meets with a weekly group of eclectic elders who study the works of Shakespeare.
QUESTION: Leadership expert and author Erika Andersen wrote an article for Forbes entitled, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders." In the article, Erika compared gardening to management and leadership. What are your thoughts, or was there something that stood out from the article?
REBECCA RUCKER: In Erika's article, she uses the metaphor of the garden to discuss five key elements of leadership. As an executive coach, I found her key points fit my experience.
Two of her points stood out to me. The first point, "You can't make plants grow," reminds me that, as a coach, you bring your best self, your toolkit, and your thought partnership to your client. Most clients welcome those opportunities to engage and grow from the exchange of skills, experience, and thought collaboration. However, there are those clients who won't. As someone who wants her clients to be successful, I have often learned that when I'm working harder than my client, I am working too hard. It is up to the client to choose whether to grow or not - no amount of the best offerings will change the outcome if the client chooses not to thrive. (The same is true for an employee in an organizational work environment.)
Erika's point, "You can't make plants grow" also goes along with the second point that struck me, "All gardeners have plants that won't thrive." I have often watched a few clients in disbelief that, no matter how great their environment, how well their skills and experience fit the job, or how skillfully their managers and co-workers support them, do not thrive. When I observed what was keeping the client from success, I found the client was his own worst enemy. I observed the client gossiping, there were constant complaints and judgments about other co-workers, and there was a victim mentality that the boss was out to get him. Most coaches and managers agree that, at that point, you must prune. It is in the best interests of the organization and the department. The remaining employees, much like Erika's plants, grow in the right environment supported by the consistent resources and their own initiative to thrive with the care they are given.
SHARE THIS: It is up to the client (or employee) to choose whether to grow or not. ~Rebecca Rucker #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog
QUESTION: What was the most recent example of inspiring leadership that made an impact on you?
REBECCA RUCKER: Recently, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke on the Senate floor in a testimony about the invaluable contribution of the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau. Citing the amount of unregulated fees made by banks, lenders, and debt collectors prior to the establishment of the bureau, she advocated for the retention of the bureau and its work. She noted the primary purposes of the bureau are as follows:
(1) To enforce federal laws that apply to consumer financial products and services
(2) To ensure that markets for financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive
(3) To provide consumers with information and tools to help them make informed financial decisions
(4) To supervise banks, lenders, credit reporting agencies, and debt collection companies (5) To accept complaints from consumers about financial products and services
Her speech was concise and passionate. She ended it by saying that she would not accept surrendering such an agency to discontinuation, but rather she would fight, fight, fight to represent the American people and their rights for financial protection.
When I think about inspiring leadership, I think of leaders who, through their strength of character, firm values and beliefs, and clear focus of direction, can stand up during times of impossible odds to continue to fight for what they believe is in the best public interest.
QUESTION: What is your favorite team-building activity, and why?
REBECCA RUCKER: My favorite team-building activity is the Ropes course. This course uses ropes, poles, safety harnesses, and challenging tasks to encourage people to go beyond their own self-imposed limitations. It requires teams of people to move beyond thought into action problem-solving to get through the challenge. The High Ropes course focuses on trust between participants, risk-taking, and acceptance of shared decisions to move the team through hurdles. There is less focus on simply thinking through a challenge, but rather on doing, failing, learning, and re-doing until the team is successfully overcoming the challenge. The course provides a holistic body-mind-spirit challenge to each person, enabling participants to expand their comfort zones, face their fears, and move the team forward because of everyone's actions.
QUESTION: Which book is on the top of your to-be-read pile, and why?
REBECCA RUCKER: The book on the top of my to-be-read pile is JAMES by Percival Everett. As someone who strives to see the world from another person's point of view in my professional and personal life, this book encourages the reader to look at the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck's friend, the slave, Jim.
At the end of 2024 when I was reading about the best books of the year, this book was cited consistently as one of the best reads. Everett won the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction for this book. My curiosity about the book is Everett's perspective on his character, Jim, and Jim's story - the untold story of a main character from Mark Twain's novel, Huckleberry Finn.
Having heard that Everett is a prolific writer, I am intrigued about the language(s) Everett will use to tell this story, and finally, my interest in reading this book is to see how Everett structures a re-telling of a story that is an American classic.
QUESTION: In the past year, has a TV show, film, or work of fiction stood out as a result of its emphasis on leadership?
REBECCA RUCKER: Kathy Bates at 76 years of age has returned to star in a television series on CBS called Matlock. Known for her movie career in "Misery" with James Caan, "Fried Green Tomatoes" with Jessica Tandy, and "Dolores Claiborne," it was hard to imagine how a television series would appeal to her. However, she shines brightly as an older attorney who goes to work at a law firm that represented the pharmaceutical company that produced the drug from which her daughter died in an overdose.
Kathy Bates demonstrates her leadership by taking a humble posture in the firm. She listens closely to the lead attorneys and provides suggestions at just the right moment. She uses her style (and sometimes excuse) of "I'm just an old lady" to conduct investigations and interviews where most people easily reply to her because of her non-threatening charm. She gains the confidence of the senior partners while investigating to discover which attorneys in the firm represented the pharmaceutical company and won the case to keep the drug on the market that killed her daughter. Bates provides a master class in demonstrating her influence at just the right moments in the law firm while the mother in her pursues justice for her daughter.
My gratitude to Rebecca for sharing her leadership insights and for being a part of my #SpringLeadershipSeries2025. Did these questions open your eyes to think about leadership in nontraditional ways? That was the hope!
Image Credit: IAWomen.com.
Read Erika Andersen's article, "How Springtime Can Make Us Better Leaders"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2015/05/14/how-springtime-can-make-us-better-leaders/
Read about the TV series Matlock:
https://parade.com/tv/matlock-season-2-kathy-bates
Read Rebecca's previous appearances here on my blog:
HOLIDAY LEADERSHIP SERIES – Featuring Rebecca Rucker (December 2024
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/12/holiday-leadership-series-featuring_02091919601.html
Let's Celebrate World Book Day and Promote Reading! (April 2024)
https://www.debbielaskeysblog.com/2024/04/lets-celebrate-world-book-day-and.html
Connect with Rebecca at these links:
Website: https://texasinstituteforconsultationandclinicalsupervision.com/about-us/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-rucker-b02277/
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