Читать книгу The Together Leader - Heyck-Merlin Maia - Страница 11

It all started with my button collection when I was two years old … just kidding! In reality, I've been fortunate to work in leadership roles for several high-performing nonprofits and school districts. And I've served as a Together coach and trainer for organizations, traditional school districts, stand-alone charter schools, and more. I've directly coached leaders in start-up mode, those in rapid-growth mode, and veteran leaders trying to sustain systems. And my own Togetherness journey directly mirrors the way I decided to set up this book. Just as I had to learn to create and define systems for myself, systems for my teams, and then systems for my organizations, you will likely follow a similar path over the course of your career.

As I settled into my first nonprofit leadership role as an executive director at Teach For America, I needed to set a clear direction for my team. This helped me appreciate measurable goals, detailed plans to accomplish an ambitious set of objectives, and transparent roles and responsibilities.

After that, I oversaw a large summer teacher-preparation program that required me to manage an even larger team, this time spread out across the country. Together we learned about the value of managing our energy and ourselves to pull off a successful summer.

Following that, I took on an executive-level role in a growing charter school organization. Oh, and I got married and had two kids of my own. And so I really came to value organization-wide practices to support Togetherness – my organization and my family were rapidly scaling! Similar to you, I was interested in creating good in the world —and having a life.