Leadership Tea
On Leadership Tea, we talk about what it takes to reach the executive level, and how to thrive when you get there. Powerful leaders share their journeys, insights, and triumphs in conversations with hosts Shelby Smith-Wilson and Belinda Jackson Farrier.
Join us every other Wednesday to be inspired by the unvarnished stories of amazing executives who know what it's like to be "the only" at the table and who have succeeded regardless. They have proven leadership experience in their respective fields, from international affairs to the private sector to academia, and want to help others create their own success stories.
Leadership Tea
Community and Service: Channeling Dr. King's Vision in Leadership
Unlock the transformative power of community and selflessness in your life as we reflect on the enduring values championed by Martin Luther King Jr. Join us on the Leadership Tea Podcast to learn how prioritizing the growth and recognition of others over personal ego can create thriving environments both personally and professionally. We explore Dr. King's profound advocacy for understanding, support, and motivation, emphasizing the lasting impact of small gestures in nurturing a sense of community. Discover how adapting and learning with humility in leadership can address economic and social challenges, inspired by Dr. King's evolving vision.
Engage with us as we challenge you to integrate these principles of selflessness and service into your everyday interactions. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let's turn reflection into action by committing to active service, embodying the spirit of giving back to our communities. We invite you to share your insights and personal values on Instagram or YouTube, fostering a more connected and supportive community. Together, we'll continue to share wisdom and inspire each other towards success, guided by the timeless lessons of Dr. King.
We publish new episodes every other Wednesday.
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Learn more about us at stirringsuccess.com
Welcome to the Leadership Tea Podcast. We're here with a bonus episode in which we wanted to reflect this MLK Day on values, and we thought that thinking about the values that Martin Luther King had as he worked on the civil rights movement was a good starting point to think about how our own values mirror that and how those values are relevant today. So with that, I will hand it over to Shelby.
Speaker 2:Maybe you can kick us off with some of your thoughts on this issue. What does this day mean to each of us? And it's a good opportunity to reflect and perhaps journal on what are the values that define you, and one of the things that comes to mind for both of us is Dr King's focus on community. This is something that we've been trying to build through the podcast, through our daily lives, when it comes to how do we want to lead our teams in the workplace, but also how do we want to show up in our personal lives, and what does community mean to each of us? You know, as we've been reflecting on some of the natural disasters that we're witnessing in the United States right now and again, what's happening globally.
Speaker 2:For me, last week was also emotionally intense as I watched some of my friends deal with significant elder care issues. I have friends who've lost their parents, and it was a reminder to me to be in community with people and to let them know that I'm there for them. Last week, it occurred to me that I needed to pick up the phone and just call a couple of my friends to check on them. Last week, it occurred to me that I needed to pick up the phone and just call a couple of my friends to check on them. I knew that they needed to hear from me and I knew that I needed to share an encouraging word to let them know that I was there for them.
Speaker 2:And I think sometimes, when we think about Dr King's legacy and what it means to be in community, sometimes we overthink it. And again some of the personal thoughts and feelings that came up for me last week reminded me that sometimes the small gestures can mean a lot and we each have the power within us to extend community in our own way, without worrying about making grand gestures, but just being there for people and leaning on each other and offering a listening ear. What about you, belinda? What comes up for you when you think about community?
Speaker 1:No, I agree with you wholeheartedly, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Understanding people's humanity and their vulnerabilities, what makes them tick, trying to bring the best out of them and motivate them.
Speaker 1:I think that's really critical, right and an important piece of building community in the workplace, which isn't necessarily your chosen family or your biological family, but a form of community nonetheless.
Speaker 1:And so we have to use those same techniques in order because we all need each other in that space to get along, and I haven't seen a workplace function well when there's a spirit of mistrust or spirit of fear. People give their least in those environments. So I definitely think that community, both in a broader sense of how can we just support each other in this world in this time, in this moment when the world just seems to be moving so fast, in this world, in this time, in this moment when the world just seems to be moving so fast, but how can we also help people get the best out of themselves? I think I was recently having a conversation with my daughter in which I talked about how my friends push me to be my best self. Yeah, right, and we want to build communities where we are all pushing each other to our higher selves and not just acquiescing to our lowest common denominator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's actually a good segue, your comment on pushing ourselves to be our best selves, our highest selves. That reminds me of another value that I wanted to raise, which is selflessness and this idea of service, and what does it mean to be in service to others? This is something that was very important to Dr King and it's something that I think about in my leadership values and my leadership journey, in being the type of leader where the focus isn't on me. What am I doing in service to my team? How am I making in them so that they are motivated to give their best, so that they feel valued in the contributions that they're making and so that they feel recognized and seen for the effort and for their performance?
Speaker 2:But when you get into positions of leadership, you really have to check your ego and take a step back and look at how can you make the whole greater, how can you make the whole better? How can you set aside your personal thoughts and views to make sure that you're getting the best out of the people who are looking to you to lead them, and that requires a different level of selflessness. That's not easy, but I think in both of our experiences, and being less focused on this is about me and what I think, and you know I know the answer. Even if you know the answer, giving your team space to work through what they think the answer is, even if they're off track, but just giving them this, the space and the opportunity to grow, whether they're making mistakes or not, is an act of selflessness and a different calling of service.
Speaker 1:And and. Things just turn out better when you are operating from a space of giving and serving. I just completely agree with that. I would say that kind of leads into this idea of service.
Speaker 1:As we reflect on Dr King's legacy King's legacy I've thought a lot about how he evolved over the course of his life and how you know I'm oversimplifying, like history here, but like how, following the height of the civil rights movement, he began to focus in on economic issues, right, and and some other social issues in the US.
Speaker 1:And he wasn't an expert, right, he wasn't an economist, but he learned, he changed, he evolved and he still had an impact. I think that this idea of humbling ourselves and kind of thinking and listening and considering how are things changing, when am I needed now Not ping-ponging all over the place, but in a deliberative way and how can I prepare myself to meet this moment, Are really crucial and important In our own everyday lives. That may look like reading books and articles, having coffee with people who you'd like to learn from online courses, but I think pushing ourselves to not be complacent, asking where we're needed now and how we can prepare to be there and have impact, is an important part of his legacy is an important part of his legacy, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I think we would like to challenge our listeners to take a moment and sit down and think about what are your values? What would your value statement look like if you were running a business or if you're in a position of senior leadership in a company, in the public sector, in academia? What do your values say about you? What do you want people to feel when they're around you? What are the values that you embody and how do they relate to Dr Kane's rich legacy as we reflect on what he meant to our country?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think those are all great questions. They're really important questions to ask ourselves on this day, right, and I'm really excited to see people's answers. I encourage you to leave your responses to this question of what are your values in our comments on Instagram at leadership, underscore T. In our comments on Instagram at leadership underscore T, or, if you're watching us on YouTube, feel free to drop those thoughts in the comments underneath this video. But, either way, excited to hear from you. We are off to a busy day of serving, in our own different ways, our communities here, because MLK Day is a day on not a day off, absolutely yes.
Speaker 2:Thanks again for being in community with us. Remember Dr King's mantra of what are you doing in service to others, be selfless in what you do in the workplace and in your personal lives. And we look forward to Sipping Wisdom and Stirring Success with you again soon. Bye.
