Frame of Reference - Profiles in Leadership
"Frame of Reference - Profiles in Leadership" and "Frame of Reference - Coming together" are conversational style shows with local, national, and global experts about issues that affect all of us in some way. I’m, at heart, a “theatre person”. I was drawn to theatre in Junior High School and studied it long enough to get a Master of Fine Arts in Stage Direction. It’s the one thing that I’m REALLY passionate about it because as Shakespeare noted, “all the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players”. Think about the universality of that line for just a moment. Think about the types of “theatre” that play out around us every day in today’s world. The dramatic, the comedic, the absurd, the existential, the gorilla theatre (it’s a thing, look it up) that is pumped into our Smart Phones, TV’s, Radios, and PC’s every minute of every day.
Think about the tremendous forces that “play” upon us - trying to first discover, then channel, feed, nurture, and finally harvest our will power and biases in order to move forward the agendas of leaders we will likely never meet. Think of all these forces (behind the scenes of course) and how they use the basic tools of theatre to work their “magic” on the course of humanity. Emotionally charged content matched to carefully measured and controlled presentations.
With that in mind (and to hopefully counter the more insidious agendas), I bring you the Frame of Reference "Family" of podcasts, where the voices of our local and global leadership can share their passion for why and how they are leaders in their community and in many cases, the world. Real players with real roles in a world of real problems. No special effects, no hidden agenda, just the facts and anecdotes that make a leader.
And at the risk of sounding trite, I sincerely thank my wife Ann and my two children Elisabeth and Josiah for continually teaching me what leadership SHOULD look like.
Frame of Reference - Profiles in Leadership
SCIL'd Leadership PT1 - Morgan McArthur
There’s a book by the name of “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek that I need to finish. In it Mr. Sinek identifies some key principles that I think underscore what Morgan and I have been talking about this week, and will continue to probe next week. Leaders Eat Last makes the following assertion:
"The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own"
According to many experts in the study of historical and modern day leadership personalities and styles, they have found that a great leader always tries to see things from other people’s perspective. They listen. They are compassionate and empathetic when appropriate, as well as directive and decisive as each situational AND INDIVIDUAL constellation of events unfolds. Leadership is not a “one size fits all”. It's more like the jacket the Michael J. Fox puts on in Back to the Future Part 2. Remember how he initially puts it on and it looks like he’s swimming in it? and then, it adjusts itself to his body measurements as he stands there. I think of leadership this way. You have to put it on and take the time to let the role “fit” you. It’s less about skills that are learned, and more about the character traits and emotional intelligence that each of us needs to develop through making mistakes, owning them and working to get better with each day. We’ve got to look under our “hoods” to understand how our engines work and where they NEED work.
Morgan McArthur’s career path has been winding, unconventional and rewarding. He has practiced as a large animal veterinarian in Idaho, mending cattle and horses for 15 years. Was Research & Development Manager at a New Zealand pharmaceutical company for a decade. As if that wasn't enough he has also given keynote/motivational speeches to audiences as small as three people to three thousand and has found a creative niche as a lettering/pinstriping artist. SCIL is one way in which he has enjoyed giving back to his home county as a UW-Madison Extension educator for five years.
Morgan is a co-facilitator in the Sauk County Institute of Leadership (SCIL) program, where participants learn more about themselves, learn a lot about the county and learn leadership skills. He’s also very involved with public art in his hometown of Baraboo. At this stage of his career Morgan knows it’s important to give back to the community and he brings enthusiasm to that mission.
Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.
