Happy New Year to all of you in the ASHA Leadership Academy Community!

As we close the door on one year and usher in a new one, I hope that you have found some useful resources in this community over the past year. Thanks to all of the members who have contributed here over the past year. I want to encourage you to continue to explore the community and ways that you can grow your own leadership skills.

Here are some of the ways that I have been able to grow my own leadership skills with resources here in this community:
1. Webinars -- I have watched several of the webinars and have been able to immediately use a tool or a concept from each webinar in my own work.
2. Resources -- Be sure to explore the RESOURCES tab here in the community. There are articles and books listed that you can read on your own (or maybe with a small group if you so choose). One of the folders in the RESOURCES tab is "Pathways and Profiles of Leadership". Over the course of 2018, members of the ASHA Committee on Leadership Cultivation wrote their own leadership profiles and sketched out their pathways to leadership. They have made them available for you to read and they demonstrate that there are many ways to participate in leadership within your profession. Also included are templates that you can use to write your own profile and/or sketch out your own pathway. Check it out if you haven't seen these yet.

In early November of 2017, a month or so after the ASHA Leadership Academy was introduced, we had a little over 70 members in this community. Today we have just over 700 members. It is exciting to see individuals take such an interest in growing their leadership skills to benefit the people that we serve and the professions that we work in every day.

One of the members of my work team recently gifted me with Brene Brown's book, Dare to Lead. Only a few pages in, I found a sentence that resonated with me and I plan to try to keep this idea front and center in 2019. Dr. Brown says, "I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential".

Here's hoping that 2019 will bring each of us in this community an awareness of potential and the courage to develop that potential as we continue on our own leadership journey!

Donna Smiley
Chair, ASHA Committee on Leadership Cultivation (2019-2020)




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Donna Fisher Smiley, Ph.D., CCC-A
ASHA Fellow
Audiologist & Audiology Supervisor
EARS Program @ Arkansas Children's Hospital
smileydf@archildrens.org
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That’s a great quote, Donna!
Effective leadership embodies the concept of investing in others rather than an opportunity to promote yourself and a personal agenda. Leadership is about supporting others as they acquire the tools they need to carry forward after our work as leaders is done. That’s why mentorship plays a major role in developing future leaders, and ASHA has done a wonderful job at providing those opportunities, including this site.
Thank you!
Melanie

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Melanie W. Hudson M.A., CCC-SLP F-ASHA
Member, ASHA Board of Directors
Chair, SLP Advisory Council
melaniehudsonslp@comcast.net
678-357-1856
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-01-2019
From: Donna Smiley
Subject: Happy New Year! Bring on 2019

Happy New Year to all of you in the ASHA Leadership Academy Community!

As we close the door on one year and usher in a new one, I hope that you have found some useful resources in this community over the past year. Thanks to all of the members who have contributed here over the past year. I want to encourage you to continue to explore the community and ways that you can grow your own leadership skills.

Here are some of the ways that I have been able to grow my own leadership skills with resources here in this community:
1. Webinars -- I have watched several of the webinars and have been able to immediately use a tool or a concept from each webinar in my own work.
2. Resources -- Be sure to explore the RESOURCES tab here in the community. There are articles and books listed that you can read on your own (or maybe with a small group if you so choose). One of the folders in the RESOURCES tab is "Pathways and Profiles of Leadership". Over the course of 2018, members of the ASHA Committee on Leadership Cultivation wrote their own leadership profiles and sketched out their pathways to leadership. They have made them available for you to read and they demonstrate that there are many ways to participate in leadership within your profession. Also included are templates that you can use to write your own profile and/or sketch out your own pathway. Check it out if you haven't seen these yet.

In early November of 2017, a month or so after the ASHA Leadership Academy was introduced, we had a little over 70 members in this community. Today we have just over 700 members. It is exciting to see individuals take such an interest in growing their leadership skills to benefit the people that we serve and the professions that we work in every day.

One of the members of my work team recently gifted me with Brene Brown's book, Dare to Lead. Only a few pages in, I found a sentence that resonated with me and I plan to try to keep this idea front and center in 2019. Dr. Brown says, "I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential".

Here's hoping that 2019 will bring each of us in this community an awareness of potential and the courage to develop that potential as we continue on our own leadership journey!

Donna Smiley
Chair, ASHA Committee on Leadership Cultivation (2019-2020)




------------------------------
Donna Fisher Smiley, Ph.D., CCC-A
ASHA Fellow
Audiologist & Audiology Supervisor
EARS Program @ Arkansas Children's Hospital
smileydf@archildrens.org
------------------------------