Debbie Laskey's Blog: SPRING LEADERSHIP SERIES 2025

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 Heather Hackett based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a consultant and contractor, Heather leverages 20 years of experience in organizational management, marketing, and community engagement. In addition to working in the for-profit, nonprofit, and cooperative sectors, she has also partnered with state and local government agencies. Heather attended the University of Pittsburgh, receiving BAs in English and communications and a master's in public policy and nonprofit management. Her creative work includes nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, which is published under the pen name Hez.

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?

HEATHER HACKETT: Erika Andersen's reference to planting the right seeds for your soil resonated with me the most. My first hiring experiences with a rapidly expanding chain of local coffee shops often came with informal instructions to take what I could get because we needed to quickly build entire teams to launch a new location. While this got the doors open on schedule, it typically resulted in chaos within the first few weeks and months of operations, as folks who weren’t the right fit either quit or proved unreliable to the point of termination becoming necessary.

This repeated cycle bred frustration and demoralization, and I was fortunate to have more say and more options with hiring in subsequent jobs where I used the lessons learned in many ways. First, by ensuring job descriptions were updated annually and confirmed before posting open positions. Second, by crafting a cohesive hiring process, complete with "good fit" questions for both the role and the organizational culture, and weighted evaluation forms that properly ranked the most important criteria for evaluating applicants. Finally, by giving candidates ample time to ask their own questions, which often illuminated crucial aspects of their interests and expectations that were just as valuable as the insights gained from their responses to our questions.

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

HEATHER HACKETT: After receiving a late diagnosis of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) near the age of 40, one of the most valuable resources in learning how to work with my brain was ADDitude. This digital and print publication invests heavily in vetting and fact-checking all of its content, including reviews by a reputable Medical Advisory Panel, so I trust the reliability and accuracy of information and guidance shared.

In recent months, as the Trump administration rolled out its Make America Healthy Again initiatives, several attacks have been made on the neurodivergent community and clinicians, including claims of over-diagnosis and over-prescribing. Throughout this tumultuousness, I have been impressed with and appreciative of ADDitude General Manager Anni Layne Rogers' (formerly of Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and Inc.) efforts to thoughtfully support and advocate on behalf of the community.

The platform made space for guest blog posts speaking up against harmful rhetoric, such as US Senator Tom Turberville (R-Alabama) who implied that kids today get prescribed stimulants when what they really need is to be disciplined with a belt. Rodgers also directly penned several articles reasserting the science-backed evidence about ADHD causes, treatments, risk factors, and outcomes with treatment. Recently, she additionally appealed directly to politicians, including an Open Letter to the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary Kennedy, who has referred to stimulant users as "addicts."

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

HEATHER HACKETT: I'm a fan of activities that relate directly to an organization's work but fall outside the realm of employees' day-to-day tasks. These forms of team-building help connect employees more passionately to the mission, remind them of their "why," and reinforce that the wonderful outcomes sought are only possible by working together.

As Board President at Ten Thousand Villages Pittsburgh, we loved it when the artisans who created our fair-trade products visited and taught us about their handicrafts. Often, we'd gain insight into how our work in the US was improving lives globally by supporting women-owned businesses that developed schools and social support systems, or community-based businesses preserving ancient customs.

In another example, when I worked at East End Food Co-op, we had a national produce expert present an hour-long interactive talk on the history of kale. You wouldn't expect there to be so much to say about a single plant, but it was fascinating from start to finish and included tactile experiences like touching and smelling different varieties. Afterward, we worked together to make a salad and learned to "massage" kale with salt and oil to bring out its fullest flavor. It was by far the best team luncheon I've ever had, and over a decade later, I still remember many fun facts about kale.

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

HEATHER HACKETT: The next book in my queue is The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes. This title appeared on a list of StoryGraph recommendations based on my previous enjoyment of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. Both books are fictionalized events inspired by real history. I've come to enjoy historical fiction for the fun opportunity it provides to get a sense of life in the time period the story is set in without feeling like an educational endeavor. The writing mechanics of historical fiction align nicely with my undergraduate degree in creative nonfiction; the two genres seem like flip sides of the same coin, in a way.

The Boxcar Librarian is set during the Great Depression and features a mystery involving the Missoula Boxcar Library. I'm excited to again see the prominence of a woman protagonist in rugged terrain — Richardson's novel featured horse-back book deliveries in the Kentucky mountains, and the Missoula Boxcar Library served the wilds of Montana.

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

HEATHER HACKETT: The film Conclave most readily comes to mind, given that the entire plot focuses on the death of a pope and the resulting selection process for his successor. I watched this film at a friend's recommendation and did not realize until afterward that it is based on a novel of the same title. I now look forward to reading it to see how the two compare.

Being unfamiliar with the papal conclave, I found the process fascinating, and the plot's twists and turns illuminated many leadership-related topics. For example:

(1) What motivates someone to become a leader?

(2) When we select our organization's next leader, how might we discern who best suits the role?

(3) Should we trust those who aspire for high offices and are readily poised to take on positions of power? Or is there merit in championing reluctant emerging leaders with strong potential, even when they may not believe in themselves?

(4) What trade-offs might there be between selecting leaders with charisma and popularity versus those with talent and skill and those with the strongest principles and values?

Debbie Laskey's Blog

Friday, April 25, 2025

SPRING LEADERSHIP SERIES 2025 – Featuring Heather Hackett

SHARE THIS: What motivates someone to become a leader? ~Heather Hackett #SpringLeadershipSeries2025 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

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