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  • 1.  This is Spinal Tap – A Call to Leadership

    Posted 12-10-2018 05:39 PM

    Gail Richard invited outgoing ASHA Board of Director members to reflect on our experiences on the Board related to leadership. First, I must say it has been a privilege and an honor. As many people in leadership positions have noted, it is very true that I gained as much from this experience as I provided. So it is with gratitude and a sense of paying it forward that I share my reflections.


    While at the 2018 ASHA convention in Boston last month, I was recalling with one of my Board colleagues the 1984 satirical mockumentary about England's loudest rock bands called This is Spinal Tap. Shortly after ASHA, I read a leadership post that referenced this movie. So it seems relevant as I reflect on my leadership experiences the past 3 years to reference this movie here! In the movie, the lead guitarist tries to explain that his guitar amplifier has extra power to go beyond 10 out of 10. He says, "You see, most blokes will be playing on 10. Where can you go from there? Nowhere! But what we do, if we need that extra push over the cliff, what we do is we go up to 11. One louder."

     

    How does this relate to my experience? Sometimes in leadership positions, you have to go beyond 10 and crank it up to 11. The key is knowing when it's time to go up and how to go up beyond your normal level of performance. For me, turning it up to 11 was needed in the following specific  situations:

    • The immediacy, complexity, and/or potential impact of an issue required additional focus, time, effort, and work to understand fully and address thoughtfully.
    • An opportunity was presented and "amping up" was required to take advantage of this opportunity; for example, submitting proposals to a global conference on interprofessional education and collaborative practice; or applying to participate in an IPE leadership program for senior administrators. These were opportunities that were beyond "business as usual" or the expected leadership activities or responsibilities.
    • Sometimes I just needed to get back into the "head space" of some issues, so additional time was needed to fully get up to speed.

     

    Each of these examples of cranking it up to 11 required me to operate at a higher than usual level of energy. For me, this meant "stretching" time like an elastic band to work on an issue -- working later, getting up earlier, or reprioritizing other projects in order to devote more time to this issue. Fortunately, as these examples point out, this is NOT the modus operandi of leadership! Otherwise we would have a bunch of leaders suffering from burn out! For those times when we've functioned too long at a level 11, there's a line from another movie about a British rock star, Get Him to the Greek, that's used to calm him when he's panicked or anxious: "Just stroke the furry wall and everything will be okay."



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    Lynn Williams, PhD., CCC-SLP
    Associate Dean and Professor
    ASHA Vice President for Academic Affairs in Speech-Language Pathology (2016-2018)
    College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences
    P.O. Box 70282
    East Tennessee State University
    Johnson City, TN 37614
    p: 423.439.7469
    f: 423.439.4240
    e: williamL@etsu.edu
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  • 2.  RE: This is Spinal Tap – A Call to Leadership

    Posted 12-10-2018 08:27 PM

    Lynn,

     

    Thank you so much for sharing these reflections with all of us.  It is helpful to know that there are times to amp it up, and times to take it down a notch (smile!).  Thanks to you (and Nadine) in sharing your experiences with us as you finish up your time on the ASHA Board of Directors.  I appreciate you both!

     

    Donna

     

    Donna Fisher Smiley, Ph.D., CCC-A

    ASHA Fellow
    Audiology Supervisor/Audiologist
    Arkansas Children's Hospital

    1 Children's Way ● Slot 113  ● Little Rock, AR 72202

    (501) 680-2718  direct  ● (501) 364-6881 fax
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  • 3.  RE: This is Spinal Tap – A Call to Leadership

    Posted 01-09-2019 12:49 PM
    This is a great reflection Lynn, thank you so much for sharing and giving us reason to reflect.