by George Carner, USAID Mission Director Inspired by Prudence Bushnell’s article “From Managing to Leading” I would like to share the lessons that served me best as a USAID Mission Director over a 35-year foreign service career. I found that moving from management to leadership was a fluid transition. Before assuming senior management roles, I had served as a management intern, a program manager, and a long-range planner. Working for able leaders, I saw the power of setting inspiring goals combined with following practical strategies around which teams could excel. Applying these lessons helped me become more strategic as a manager. Using program … [Read more...] about Growing from Manager to Leader: Observations and Lessons
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Influencing As A Woman In Her Twenties
by Isabelle Van Hook, Philanthropy Officer, Major Gifts at Breast Cancer Research Foundation How do you influence when you are far from the top of the hierarchy? Pru asked and Isabelle responded Four things I learned about influencing as a women in my twenties: #1 Relationships equal power Make the time to cultivate positive working relationships with colleagues at all levels -- within your department, your organization, or sector. The ability to call on a friendly colleague for a favor, their support, or to help overcome a challenge is valuable beyond measure #2 Those in positions of power may know more than you, but they can’t know everything. Carve … [Read more...] about Influencing As A Woman In Her Twenties
S.M.A.R.T. Women Leaders Facing Protests
S.M.A.R.T. stands for Strategic. Moral. Achievable. Resilient. Transformative. I use it as a lens through which to view leadership and innovative approaches to human security challenges. On May 25, 2020, a COVID-19 captive American television audience witnessed in real time the murder of George Floyd by law enforcement officers in Minneapolis, MN. Mayors of hundreds of cities across the country confronted angry, concerned, hopeful and at times violent demonstrators over the next weeks. They shared the triple challenge of respecting protesters’ rights, safeguarding life and property, and acknowledging the reality of police brutality - sometimes within … [Read more...] about S.M.A.R.T. Women Leaders Facing Protests
S.M.A.R.T Women Leaders Facing Coronavirus
As the corona virus swept through the world, media highlighted women heads of government whose leadership saved thousands of lives. I read these articles searching for themes in the behaviors they were lauding. When I found these themes – reliance on science and technology, swift decision-making, calm truth-telling, showing empathy -- they spelled S.M.A.R.T. -- Strategic. Moral. Achievable. Resilient. Transformative. I created the concept of S.M.A.R.T. because experience taught me that the traditional “hard” and “soft” power alternatives to address transnational and human security problems did not work in many cases. I use it now as a prism through which to … [Read more...] about S.M.A.R.T Women Leaders Facing Coronavirus
Understanding Group Behavior After Disasters
I arrived at my first ambassadorship in Nairobi, Kenya in 1996 with a leadership agenda that included inter agency teamwork and raising community morale. Like all U.S. embassies, our teams changed membership at least once a year. My last article looked at the different phases of group behavior as noted by American psychologist, Bruce Tuckman. I experienced those stages every time we moved in the Foreign Service, as a child and adult. In good times, I was comfortable with them. The Disaster Two years after my arrival in Kenya, at 10:30 on an early August Friday morning, thousands of people in office buildings around the downtown Nairobi railroad station and the … [Read more...] about Understanding Group Behavior After Disasters