For Our Edification

Announcing Edify Ventures, LLC, a brand strategy and experiences company! Find out why I started this thing, and learn more about Edify Ventures by going to https://edifyventuresnola.com.

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Yes, there is such a thing as followership, so I invited someone to talk about it in a very creative way. Sharna Fabiano is the 2023 chair of the International Leadership Association’s Followership Member Community and an internationally recognized tango artist. She’s also the host of a great podcast called “Lead & Follow” (linked below). Sharna cleverly uses dance as a metaphor for the leader-follower relationship. We talked about the importance of trusting your partner, what it means to be a skilled follower, and the importance of self-awareness.

About Sharna Fabiano | sharnafabiano.com

Sharna Fabiano is an artist, coach, author of Lead & Follow: The Dance of Inspired Teamwork, and host of the Lead & Follow podcast. Her long study of improvisation and partnering has made her a specialist in Argentine Tango, for which she is recognized internationally. She brings her insights from the world of social dance into the professional sphere with innovative training programs on leadership and followership for teams and organizations.

Sharna’s accomplishments in the dance world include establishing two tango schools, directing her own performing company, and founding a nonprofit organization. Throughout her dance career, she has been an outspoken advocate for learning both leading and following roles independent of gender, a practice that cultivates empathy, inclusion, and creativity.

In 2011, she collaborated with followership pioneer Ira Chaleff on a video training tool using tango to illustrate how followership directly impacts leadership in organizations. In 2017, she received a Hemera Foundation artist fellowship to explore the link between contemplative practice and art making. In 2019, she presented her work on leadership/followership dynamics at the very first Global Followership Conference, and more recently at conferences held by the Association for Change Management Professionals, the Association for Talent Development, and the International Leadership Association.

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

If anybody knows anything about overcoming obstacles, P.J. Dixon does. Here's someone who has lived a chunk of his life in a wheelchair, yet that hasn't stopped him from living life to the fullest as a wheelchair athlete, international traveler, 10th degree black belt, and a martial arts and women’s self-defense instructor. So, how has P.J. done it???

In this energized interview, we go in about overcoming obstacles to strengthen personal leadership. From the power of awareness to dealing with baggage to choosing who we are in the moment to putting accountability in perspective, P.J. covers a lot of emotional ground.

Learn more about P.J. and connect with him at https://www.pjswisdom.com.

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

When my family talked about getting a dog, I talked about how much work it would be for us. What I didn’t anticipate was how much having a dog would teach us about ourselves. Who knew? Wilfred "Woofred" Hester knew.

As a professional dog trainer, Wilfred works with dog parents to help them understand how their behaviors determine their dogs' responses. If things go well, the result is a host of personal leadership lessons that bring dog parents much closer to their pets.

My big three takeaways?

The thirst for instant gratification distorts vision.

Connect to life.

Know the capacity you have to fit things into your life.

Learn more about Woofred Dog Training at https://www.woofred.com.

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Some of the people I admire most are servant leaders. These are folks who put others first. But they do so to help guide groups and communities in specific directions. One of my very cool higher ed marketing and communications colleagues, Jenny Petty, has such a fascination with servant leadership that she hosts a podcast called The Servant Marketer.

Jenny visited For Our Edification for a robust, energetic, nerd-out conversation about servant leadership. We find out what led to her fascination with it, how she infuses it into her marketing work, and how she practices self-care as an ardent believer in servant leadership.

Jenny also serves as the vice president for marketing and communications at the University of Montana.

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

On May 27th, USA Today published the article, "How funders, school leaders can step up to combat philanthropic disparities faced by HBCUs.” The only problem is that I felt the article needed a bit more fundraising and philanthropy meat on the bone. Cue our resident fundraising and philanthropy expert--Dr. Halima Leak Francis and the Write to Bear Alms segment.

Having researched fundraising capacity-building at HBCUs, Halima talks about why these fundraising disparities in exist. She also discusses what funders value in their relationships with institutions and more.

References:

How funders, school leaders can step up to combat philanthropic disparities faced by HBCUs (USA Today): https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/05/27/hbcus-philanthropic-funding-continues-to-favor-white-institutions/70254668007/

Changing the Odds: Lessons Learned from the Kresge HBCU Initiative:  https://kresge.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Changing-the-odds_lessons-learned.pdf 

Making Bricks without Straw: The Kresge HBCU Initiative and Fundraising at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Halima's dissertation): https://www.proquest.com/openview/f7f14fea88534469d95891934e9ea01f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

Halima and I continue our conversation about how people struggle with shame. This part of the conversation goes deeply into leadership. We tackle how chaos aggravates one's feeling of shame while hiding others' feelings of shame. We also go into how organizational culture plays into individuals' feelings of shame, and also how accountability can be weaponized.

So, how do we deal with feeling shame in the struggle? Halima believes that tapping into our creativity could be a great answer.

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

It's so refreshing to have Dr. Halima Leak Francis back on the mic with me! She had something serious on her heart and wanted to share it with the "For Our Edification" audience. Halima wants you to know that there's no shame in the struggle. 

She has ever so wise words about the importance of showing up when you're in the middle of the struggle and how she works through moments of struggle, even in her job as an educator. Finally, find out why Halima says it all comes down to your "why." This is part one of pure inspiration.

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

In this second part of my conversation with Joel Goodman, we talk a bit more about website strategy for colleges and universities. But an interesting moment happens when we get real about how burnout looks for higher ed marketers and what it's like having to manage egos. Finally, we learn about Joel's new podcast, Appendix B, which he co-hosts with his Bravery Media colleague, Kristin Van Dorn.

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

I had something on my brain. No more "soft skills!" Find out why I believe that term needs to go.

References:

LinkedIn: Why I Hate the Term 'Soft Skills'

Medium: Soft Skills: Origin, where it comes from and Concept

National Career Development Association: Why We Should Stop Using ‘Soft’ Skills

The views expressed on "For Our Edification" do not necessarily reflect the views of any entity with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.