Collaboration and Consensus-Building
Creating trust, being a bridge-builder among people, helping to bring about consensus on difficult issues, seeing a complex plan come together, working interdependently in a positive way, and pulling people together for the common good—all have great meaning for emerging sage leaders.
It gives me great satisfaction when people come to me for help. I can’t always fix everything for them, but I am happy to try and be a bridge-builder between people with problems and people with solutions. It makes me happy to be an accessible resource to people and to feel involved in their lives.
Personal and Professional Growth
Many emerging sages reflect on the personal and professional growth they have achieved from being engaged in their favored civic organizations. To one emerging sage this means having gotten through a long learning curve in becoming an executive director; to another mentoring from the county’s chief financial officer; and to a third having access to new learning opportunities:
Within the probation department, I’ve had the opportunity to be in all of the units and become fluent in all the aspects of the organization. That’s helped me become a leader in the department, and it has served me well. I tell younger department members that they should go after assignments in different areas of the organization because it gives them such valuable perspective to know that each unit has its own style and culture.
Finding the Satisfaction I: Each Person’s Own Source
One emerging sage leader sums-up the satisfactions gained by many of his emerging leader colleagues: “It is witnessing the limitless possibilities that come when people pull together.” Other emerging leaders say much the same thing in different terms. One indicates she likes working through conflict until the group reaches consensus. Another spoke about “giving shape” to an organization that previously didn’t exist, while a third says she derives great satisfaction from bringing “credibility” to her organization. A fourth emerging sage reports tapping into the unique gifts that each member of the group brings to a project. All of this seems to be about honoring diversity and bringing everyone together until there is a “finished vision” for the community.
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