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KathyL wrote: "I want to learn how NJ has taught so many
to be a good leader."
Now here's where the rambling comes in.
Answer is, I didn't. These CITY-Leaders had the spark
inside of them. Stepped off the ledge with us
convinced they would fly. My part is more like Dumbo's
feather. It's inside the individual to want to lead.
I'm just offering a structure within which they will
get training, continued support and help to build
their lists and subsites.
I feel the advantage the majority of the CITY-Leaders
have is having been on the clay list for so long. We
had and still have a strong Mod team. There was a
sense of being safe and nurtured. It was an
environment where beginners could be celebrated. "You
opened a pack of clay \(*o*)/ YEAH!" yelled out with
sincere fond regard. The beginnings are delicate
times, how one begins often colors the whole
experience with a medium.
List members are shown an example by who ever runs the
list. We had a huge team, who happily worked hard to
provide services that no other list would dream of.
Giving away art supplies so the needy could create and
raising funds to do that. Donating whole libraries so
those who need to borrow a book can. Natural disaster
relief for our ClayMates. Making it a rule that no big
vendor can spam the list without offering a discount
to the entire list for the privilege.
All these services and policies were created by list
members, or ClayArtMods, not by me. Trick to good
leadership is to recognize someone who is self
motivated, self directed, who comes up with good
ideas, has enthusiasm for the topic and beg them to
join the team behind the scenes.
I'm not above begging a promising candidate to join
us. LOL "Oh Pluuuseeeeeze help us."
I learned to consider the other team members, will
they get along? I have been remiss at times just
adding a new mod, but I felt that the other mods knew
the person from the list, and would feel good about
teaming up with them. I have apologized to the team
for moving too fast in time and space like that. I
make effort not to do that, most times. I've made my
miscalculations over the years, but the Mod that
didn't fit ended up wandering off after a while. One
of the advantages with having a list for 5 years.
What I am aware of all the time is the example I set
for the clay list at large. Being active the longest,
I tend to set precedent. So if I tend to ramble, I'm
real patient with others who do too. If I show my
disasters then it is ok for list members to have
disasters too. If others want to do demo, teach, make
tutorials I praise them to the heavens and thank them
all the time, give recognition on my website for their
efforts.
Some list leaders are jealous of anyone coming along
to "steal their thunder". I'm giving it away, "Please,
step into the spotlight...I have ironing to do."
Being a list leader doesn't give anyone the right to
be hurtful, but they also need to learn how to NetCop
to keep the peace. It's a fine line at times and
that's why I depend so much on the COCModSquad. I
often turn to them and ask..."What do you think about
this?" and listen to their feed back. Based on what a
majority of us agree with we'll go with that for
policy.
Oh there's times when someone on the list gets on my
last nerve, like 56 spams in a year for dolls and less
than a handful of posts responding to others. Then
I'll just put the kabosh on that. Most times the
ClayArtMods said, "Yeah, I was wondering about that."
Can leadership be taught? Some parts, setting an
example of open communication, things like training the
"nuts and bolts" behind the scene, recognition for
their efforts, praise, discussions that respect the
mods opinions. Reminding them it's ok to take a break
and take care of their real life before working on the
list.
But can leaders be made? Nope. I don't think so.
Leaders already have the fire in the belly to
communicate with a bunch of folks, to provide a good
time for their lists, to share their joy, to protect
the list from trouble makers that will piss on our
parade at a drop of a hat.
You can't make folks feel that way, you have to
recognize when folks already feel that way and then
beg them to come help. LOL
Shhh, I shouldn't laugh so loud, I'm going to wake up
James. LOL
Interesting comment, late night ruminating about
leadership is part of what this list is all about.
CITY-Leaders if you've read this far you know it's ok
to ramble here too. You can ramble about the process
of learning how to lead, how to train, what to do to
spark participation on a list, any of those
discussions are valid here. For if we don't examine
what we do, how we do it, and why we do it, then we're
flying blind, with that "sink or swim" technique that
didn't work for the former list family KathyL and I
were involved with before.
So that's all I can think of on this topic and I still
have ironing to do, so I best go do that.
xoxo
NJ
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