Tell Me About Yourself

What I hope you’ll remember from this blog post:

It’s okay to talk about how your personal life influences your professional life. In fact, I encourage it.
Be brave. Question your longstanding beliefs and attitudes to grow as a leader and a professional.
Be prepared to answer, “Tell me about yourself.”

Read on:

A friend asked, “Are you sure about the title and the content of your blog? Aren’t you violating decades of leadership and management advice by also talking about the personal?”

Yes, I am sure about the title.

And yes, I am intentionally disregarding decades of leadership and management advice by mixing the personal with the professional.

My experiences outside of work profoundly influence who I am as a leader, colleague, and professional. Where I grew up, the people I loved and who loved me, the sports I played and watched, the books I read, the music I listened to, the art I admired, the schools I attended - all influence who I am at work and inform my professional life. I suspect the same is true of you.

Speaking about the personal is also the best and only way I know how to be authentic when describing professional successes and failures. I try to examine how those experiences played a role, and if so, in what way?

One of the most challenging parts of my professional life is having the fortitude to examine and question longstanding beliefs and attitudes that at one time, and in one place, served me well. To disregard the role of those personal beliefs in my professional life stunts my - and your - growth as a leader, colleague and professional. Your words become misaligned with your actions, and people lose trust in you. Don’t be that person. Be brave.

So let me start with the personal. My family and friends know this about me:

I grew up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, which at that time was part farmland and part suburbia/bedroom community for Kansas City. I’ve spent time on dairy farms, witnessed calves being born, and collected eggs. As a teenager, I worked in a department store and in my father’s donut shop. I will always think of the possible impacts on small businesses and family farms when debating policy options.

My family is my everything. And that family includes the dogs, cats, a rabbit, fish, and the hermit crabs I’ve loved over the years.

I MUST exercise and eat! Exercise clears my mind, calms anxieties, and provides inspiration for some of my most clever and zany ideas. And like the Incredible Hulk, you won’t like me when I’m hangry. (Did I mention my sense of humor?)

I value the education I received - particularly in leadership - while attending the U.S. Air Force Academy. While I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and was commissioned and served in the Air Force, I quickly learned the military was ultimately not my calling.

I wish I had paid closer attention to the social justice teachings while I obtained a Master’s degree in Management at the McGregor School at Antioch University. I am revisiting them today. And I am forever inspired by Horace Mann’s exhortation to its graduates in 1859: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

And now, the professional:

I am a creative, action-oriented technology strategy and policy professional who develops and successfully implements sophisticated strategies for organizations. The cornerstones of those strategies are simple:

Inclusive Leadership matters: I believe organizations create opportunities, solve problems, and achieve their goals when they embrace inclusive leadership and encourage coaching and mentoring - up, down, and across teams.

Playing well with others pays off: Working with industry, government officials, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, underrepresented communities, and internal stakeholders translates into products that customers seek out and are willing to pay for.

Speak to me: Tailoring messages about your products and team to reach global influencers and public audiences is essential to achieving success.

And most crucially: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging are more than HR goals. These values must permeate every aspect of your organization for you to be relevant in today's society.

What is your personal, and your professional? I look forward to continuing our conversation.