Reposted from Northern States Conservation Center
by Joan Baldwin, originally printed in Leadership Matters

I don't know about you, but when I am besieged with obligations, meetings, and deadlines, I make lists. Over time the lists become a bit of a joke because things that weren't accomplished one week don't always move forward to the next. Instead they occupy a sort of list purgatory, haunting me as I go about my days. You may have a better way of organizing things. Your lists may be digital. Perhaps you're more efficient, but however you make your way through your tasks, there is always a certain satisfaction in the strike-through, marking something as done, finished, complete, and off your plate for a while.

But then, and maybe this doesn't happen to you, there is another sort of list. It's the list from 30,000 feet. It's always with me, a reminder of ways of being, things I need to focus on, ways I need to be more intentional. This week Anne Ackerson and I read papers from our Johns Hopkins University students regarding leadership at museums, zoos, and heritage organizations undergoing challenge and change. As I read them--many discuss museums that have been in the news for one thing or another--I am struck again, by how complex leadership is, how many moving parts there are, and how important it is that the personal integrate with the organizational.

As I've said here about a million times, reflection in leadership is key. So in that spirit, here are 10 things on my 30,000-foot leadership list for this fall.

1. Remembering to pause: whether it's going outside for 15 minutes for a walk; sitting with a non-work friend over coffee; laughing. Life isn't all work.
2. Understanding my organization's origin story: Acknowledging the work, gifts, and goals of those who came before me, while moving forward in a world that's changed and changing, and creating a way to make the two work together.
3. Listening: Spending part of every day, not waiting to speak, but actually listening.
4. Remembering not to judge: Trying to make my go-to be to understand, to empathize, and to be present rather than to judge.
5. Acknowledging accomplishments: You've all probably read about Anne's accomplishment jar. I am thinking about creating a team accomplishment jar where our program can acknowledge its best moments over the course of the year. Sometimes it does take a village.
6. Making my observations my obligation: Standing up for injustice, for inequity, for the minor--the constant interrupter in staff meetings who rides herd over more reserved colleagues--to the major--the colleague who's bullied or harassed.
7. Looking for the through-lines, whether in history, race, gender, environment and class: I work with a collection created by white men in a different age, for a different age. I need to re-center, educate, and through acquisition bring community and collection into alignment.
8. Give back to the field: In many ways I've been very, very lucky. I've managed to make a living, to use my imagination, to work in beautiful places, surrounded by interesting collections. I must always give back, pay it forward, and help those following behind.
9. Make sure everyone's at the table: From the board to the front-line staff, make sure we represent our communities. And then do my best to make sure all voices are heard equitably, whether in an exhibition or a staff meeting.
10. Values permeate the workplace too: While values are important in the front of the house--see #7--they are also important in our workspaces. Leaders content to ignore inequitable pay and benefits are leaders perpetuating the worst kind of patriarchal system. See #6.

Your list may be different, but I hope you have one. Having one fuels forward movement and change.

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