Institute News

Being in a new leadership role with the Institute for Public Service and being a member of the IPS Leadership Team, I have recently spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of leadership skills I need to make our new SMART Initiative successful. I have read many books and attended numerous presentations. However, there is one area that isn’t often discussed, I assume since it is not relevant to many leaders. What I have recently been on the search for is “How do you lead when you don’t know where you’re going?”

One of these days I aspire to learn to paint. To really take some image I have in my head, to apply colors and blends and hues and textures to a canvas, and to be able to recognize it as a close approximation. I admire anyone who can do this in any medium or artistic frame. 

Most would agree upon the reasons we call this art. But today, I could take the same paint, the same brushes, the same canvas, and the same image and compared to the painting a real artist completed, mine would not even qualify as art. Not even if we called it “modern art” or “abstract art.” 

Jefferson County announced it is receiving of one of the inaugural awards for Excellence in the Application of the Opioid Litigation Principles.

I am a self-proclaimed overthinker; if there’s a way to ruminate on something, I’m going to do it. Recently, for Leadership Academy, I started reading “Reality-Based Leadership” by Cy Wakeman. I have been pleasantly surprised by this book, and even a few chapters in, I have found some valuable lessons. The biggest takeaway has been related to my overthinking. In the book, Wakeman notes that stress is not caused by what happens to us, but rather by the stories we tell ourselves about it. In a chain of events, the one thing that we can control is the way we think about it.

In today’s fast-moving work world, being a good leader means more than just leading a team. It’s also important to know how to work effectively with your bosses to achieve success for your organization. This is called leading up and involves skills like communicating well, collaborating with others, and influencing people in higher positions. Mastering these skills can create a positive work culture and help your agency move forward. 

Coming home from the UT Board of Trustees meeting, I listened to an interview of the current governor of Utah, Spencer Cox.

Innovation, Honesty, Engagement, Accountability and Respect: I HEAR

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin draw powerful leadership principles from their experiences as U.S. Navy SEALs in "Extreme Ownership."  Each chapter describes a leadership lesson learned during their combat or training experience. The chapter explains the leadership principle and the principle’s application to business. As I was reading, I realized that the principles aligned with the values and desired behaviors of BE ONE UT. After the chapter name, I have added the value and behavior from BE ONE UT that I think align with each chapter.

I’m an outdoors guy and an avid backpacker. I love spending time on the trail. As spring approaches, my wife and I are already planning which backpacking trips we are going to tackle this year. As we are considering parks to visit and routes to take, it’s made me look back and reminisce about some of the lessons I’ve learned over the miles, much of which can be applied to our roles as leaders.

Last month’s LEAD article was inspired by a visit Resa and I made between Christmas and New Year’s Day to the Little White House in Key West, Fla. I’d like to revisit (figuratively) the Little White House one more time to make another observation.

That observation is: good leadership makes a (positive) difference!