At our regular Club meeting on April 30, Terri Priday provided a presentation on “Closing the Gap & Reclaiming Your Leadership Energy”. Ms. Priday told us that before becoming a certified leadership coach, she “worked at a civil engineering firm”. In fact, she was the CFO, VP of Operational Support and the first female executive at a $2 billion heavy civil construction company. However, she experienced that over time, she was losing her enthusiasm for leadership. She would come home drained on Friday night. Then on Sunday night, she would dread having to return to work Monday morning. This experience is fairly common in today’s workplace. By some estimates, 75% of employees and 90% of millennials experience these “Sunday Scaries”. The “Sunday Scaries” result from feelings of fear, being overwhelmed, frustration, too many demands, too little support and a lack of psychological safety in the workplace. This experience motivated Priday to get into leadership coaching.
Priday’s techniques for dealing with leadership burnout include both mental and tactile exercises. She took us through a few samples of her techniques. In one exercise, we were asked to put the “Sunday Scaries” into a color, texture and shape in our imaginations, and then lighten the color, smooth the shape, soften the texture, calm ourselves and take a series of deep breaths. The audience generally agreed that this exercise had a calming effect. Ms. Priday also emphasized the importance of alignment between who we are outside of work and how we show up during work. When people are aligned in these two roles, they tend to be happier and exude greater confidence in their work roles. Ms. Priday asked the group to answer in writing a series of questions about our individual core values and then make mock adjustments to our leadership styles consistent with our answers to the questions. It was an interesting and engaging session.
The video presentation I have on the Zang family has been previewed by the Broomfield Historical Society (Dave Allison and Roberta Depp), Lafayette Kiwanis Club, and last Saturday for a group at the Veteran's Museum. We got some fine reviews.
It has been a fun project because it is somewhat whimsical and full of historic photos and documents (even a couple surprising AI animations).
It is scheduled for a complete showing by the Society, April 21 at the Broomfield Crescent Grange (which was built by Adolph Zang!).
By May I will have some important revisions: the new owner of the 1910 Zang farm house in Broomfield wants to be included. And, I have been contacted by staff of Kevin Vollmer who owns the Zang Mansion in Denver. I hope to collaborate with them by then.
Broomfield FISH