I hope you all are having a great week, especially with Spring Break right around the corner! One of my interviews was with my father, who is Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 763. My parents, and family, have all worked for the union at some point in their lives. My father has a career that I aspire to, and he has proven time and time again that he is a leader every day that he steps into the office.
When interviewing my father I asked him directly how he is a leader in the public sector. He responded, “By representing about 4,500 people who work in the public sector and having to engage in conversations with their bosses who are at the lowest level, supervisors and some who are at the highest level, mayors”. I also asked him how he defines himself as a leader. His response was “I guess when you are elected by the members, they elected you as a leader. It’s not how I define myself. When you have to go out and represent folks to the best of your ability, and they have the confidence in you to do that, and you check back with them regularly saying this is the road we are going down, these are the proposals we have on the table as we are bargaining a new contract, am I hearing you right? Is this the direction you want to go? And they tell you yes, and we go back and get that deal and bring it back to them and get it ratified. They pass it. That tells you you’re a leader”
Attempting to stump him, my next question was “As a leader, how do you become a better leader?” He responded, “I believe the best way to become a better leader is to study history, pay attention to the people who you work for, and if you do the best job you can of listening and the least job of talking, you’re going to get the feedback you want”. Being a leader comes with a load of responsibilities. I later asked, “When you got your job, did you know you would have the responsibilities that you do?” My dad replied, “The job has more responsibility than I was aware of and I had a pretty good idea of what the job entailed. But it was more responsibility even than that”. “What is one characteristic you believe every leader should possess?” I asked. “I think being a good listener. Being a good listener, being a good communicator. Being a good communicator starts with listening” my father states, “always try do to the right thing for the majority of the group you’re leading. Because as a leader, no matter what, you’re not going to please everyone all the time. You have to do the right thing. Not the thing that pleases a person.”
Until next time!
Renee
(Blog 10 Interview)
(Blog 10 Interview)
Your father's job sounds interesting. I think the truth rings in being a good listener. I also spoke of that with my leader i blogged about. I think that sometimes people forget that being a communicator does not just mean being able to express your ideas/thoughts clearly either verbally or written but a large part of being a communicator is listening. I would even argue this is a more important aspect of being a good communicator and one that often gets ignored.
ReplyDeleteIt is great that you have a father that does what you aspire to do. You're interview was interesting to read and found it great that you were trying to stump him with your question.
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