Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:00
We often have an idea of the impact we want to create through a project
0:06
or other organizational initiatives because they usually have some kind
0:12
of monitoring and evaluation involved.
0:15
But we rarely think about the impact that we want to create as individual leaders.
0:23
And this is so important I believe in order to make a bigger impact,
0:28
you first need to know what is that impact you want to make?
0:40
Welcome to the Aid for Aid Workers Leadership Podcast.
0:44
I'm Torrey Peace, a former aid worker now leadership coach, whose mission is
0:49
to help you achieve the impact you're seeking while empowering your team and
0:55
stepping away from the hustle so you can focus on the things you love the most.
1:00
Sound good? Let's get started.
1:04
Hello, my aid worker friend, I hope you're having a wonderful week.
1:10
And I wonder too, if you have ever had the experience of not
1:17
knowing where you're going. And I'm thinking specifically of not knowing where you're going
1:26
when it comes to a journey like a in a car or traveling somewhere.
1:33
And one of the most frightening experiences I've had of this is when
1:40
my husband and I were in Kenya and we were going camping for the first time.
1:48
And We had no idea what to expect.
1:53
When we camp and what I mean is, take a tent and go outside and spend the
1:58
night in a national park somewhere.
2:02
When we do this in the US, we usually have a campground.
2:08
So in other words, there's usually a bathroom that's nearby.
2:13
There's usually a fence around the area where you're camping and they're usually
2:19
some people very close by and there's very clearly defined, places where you camp.
2:27
They're usually even numbered with signs and they might even have a picnic table.
2:32
So it's very clear where you're supposed to camp.
2:37
But in Kenya, it was pretty much the opposite.
2:42
So there were no fences. There were no signs.
2:46
There was no camp here.
2:48
There was no bathroom. Even a lot of times there were no markers or even indications at all of
2:58
This is where you're supposed to camp. And so the first time we went, I remember we were looking around and
3:06
I was so surprised that there was no fence between us and all the animals.
3:12
And this particular park had a lot of rhinos and a lot of hippos because we were
3:18
going to be camping next to the river.
3:20
I knew that much. But we could not find the campsite.
3:26
So we had to go back to the entrance of the park and ask for directions.
3:32
And once they gave us a more specific idea, they give us a map and they
3:36
give us very specific directions about passing a certain tree that
3:40
looked a certain way and so on. We finally found this little patch of ground that had a very small
3:46
circle of charcoal where someone had previously camped with a campfire
3:52
and we set up for the night there. And that night was definitely very harrowing.
3:57
This particular park had more predators per hectare than I
4:02
think any other park in Kenya.
4:05
And all night we were hearing hyenas and lions roaring and all kinds of things.
4:12
So you can imagine we would be sleeping in our tent for just a little
4:16
while and then we get up and we go to the car because we just, it was too
4:20
much knowing that we also didn't have a fence around us and that we were
4:24
not anywhere near any other campers.
4:27
So at any rate, this was one of the first introductions we had to camping in Kenya.
4:33
And we also learned that when you camp in a park in Kenya, it's a good idea
4:40
to say yes to having a ranger with you and some of those parks require
4:44
it, but this particular one did not. So we always, after that made sure that we had a ranger at least for
4:51
psychological safety and feeling a little bit better that they were supposedly
4:56
up all night watching over the tent.
5:01
All this to say that , in the very beginning, when we were setting out to
5:05
look for this campsite, we really didn't have a clear idea of where we were going.
5:10
We didn't have an idea because we had never been there before
5:13
what to look for, or if there would be any signs or anything.
5:17
But when we got a clear idea from the Rangers of where to go
5:22
and where specific area on the map, we were able to find this.
5:29
And this is the way I think about when it comes to achieving goals, when
5:35
it comes to making an impact in our work as humanitarian and development
5:39
leaders, we talk a lot about making an impact, but what does that really mean?
5:49
And how do you make an impact?
5:53
So the first step to making an impact is to define it.
6:00
In other words, to know where you're going. To have a vision, a very clear idea of where you want to go.
6:08
Just like after we got those directions from the ranger and we got a map
6:14
because we knew our destination, we were way more likely to find it.
6:21
And I think this is the same with making an impact.
6:23
We need to know and define what is the impact that we
6:27
want to make in order to know that we are on track and that we are able to achieve it.
6:35
So in this episode, I'm going to share some ways to determine the impact
6:40
you as an individual want to create, not for your organization or for
6:47
your team, but for you as a leader.
6:51
We often have an idea of the impact we want to create through a project or
6:59
through other organizational initiatives because they usually have some kind
7:04
of monitoring and evaluation involved.
7:07
But we rarely think about the impact that we want to create as individual leaders.
7:15
And this is so important. I believe in order to make a bigger impact, you first need to know what
7:22
is that impact you want to make. That's the first step.
7:26
And so I have incorporated this into my coaching course, The Coach Approach
7:31
Leadership Style, because in order to be productive, and in order to make an
7:36
impact, we need to define what it is.
7:41
So the word impact, according to the Cambridge Dictionary,
7:45
means to have a strong effect or influence on a person or situation.
7:51
And in our case, in humanitarian and development world, we want
7:56
to have a strong positive effect.
8:00
So you may even have several ideas or ways that you would like to make an impact.
8:07
For example, when I was a Country Manager, I remember I wanted to make an impact
8:12
on my team by creating a place to work that people loved and where there was
8:19
a low turnover and high performance.
8:23
I also wanted to create an impact in a different way by making our
8:28
organization perceived as innovative and performing high quality work so that
8:35
we could easily attract donor funding.
8:38
And then I also wanted to make an impact on our implementing partners.
8:43
Helping them become more independent so that they could find their own funding.
8:49
So these are different ways, when I was a Country Manager, that I
8:52
had envisioned making an impact.
8:54
And because I was clear on that vision, I was able to work towards those things.
9:01
Stranded Stranded vehicles?
9:08
Oh, no. Donor visits? Oh man.
9:11
And delayed procurements. You've got a lot on your mind and we want to make it easy to get the best leadership
9:17
content delivered directly to your inbox.
9:19
All you have to do is join our weekly email list and you'll receive a weekly
9:24
email with the latest podcast episodes, as well as any additional twos and tips
9:29
to sign up now, go to www.aidforaidworkers
9:33
com. That's www.
9:37
aidforaidworkers. com and click on the sign up for weekly emails in the navigation
9:40
bar at the top of the page. Now back to today's episode.
9:47
And like me, you might want to make an impact in several ways, but for
9:52
the sake of today's episode, let's focus on the impact that you want
9:57
to make as a leader for your team.
10:02
So, once again, the first step in making an impact is defining the impact you want.
10:12
And I'm going to share now a few questions that you can use to do this.
10:18
So first think about your strengths and your values as a leader and
10:24
what makes you excited when it comes to supervising your team?
10:29
Does it excite you to help them come up with new ideas or innovations?
10:34
Or maybe it excites you to help them build trust and better relationships with each
10:40
other or in the team, the broader team?
10:44
Or maybe it excites you to help them grow and develop professionally?
10:49
Or maybe it excites you to help them be more visible to senior leaders or donors?
10:57
Or maybe there are several of these that excite you, but I want you to choose one,
11:01
the main one that you want to achieve by the end of your time leading your team.
11:08
And the reason I use the word excite, and we look at the emotion of excitement
11:13
or brings you joy or happiness to think about is because when we tap into our
11:21
positive emotion when we envision our team getting along better, having better
11:27
trust or being more developed, having more opportunities, maybe even doing
11:33
temporary duties abroad, whatever it is.
11:37
If that thing excites us to think about, then we're going to be
11:41
motivated to work toward that. I'd like to think of our emotion of excitement or happiness or joy as
11:51
also being a type of compass that allows us to know where we as a
11:58
leader can make the most impact by following those positive emotions.
12:04
So that's why it's so important when you think about what you want to achieve, the
12:10
impact you want to create on your team, really thinking about what would excite
12:16
you or make you feel like your time as a leader with your team has been worth it?
12:23
And also looking at your strengths and your values as a leader as well,
12:30
because usually when we're looking at what we do well, naturally, or our
12:36
values as a leader, then we can also tap into things that motivate us,
12:44
that fuel us, that encourage us to achieve more and make a greater impact.
12:53
And we want our fuel for doing these things to be these positive emotions.
12:59
So that's why it's so important to really tap into that feeling when you're thinking
13:06
about what you want to achieve from this.
13:10
And once you have an idea of your values as a leader and what excites
13:16
you to think about achieving, then you can make it more clear and measurable.
13:22
So in order to have the vision, you know, we can have an idea of where
13:27
we're going on the map, but the more clear you can be to pinpoint and know,
13:32
yes, I've arrived at this particular latitude and longitude or this particular
13:37
place, this particular campsite, then the more likely you will get there and
13:43
that you will know when you are there.
13:46
So what might be two or three ways that you can know that
13:52
you have achieved this impact? The more measurable, the better.
13:57
It's the same with our monitoring and evaluation for projects.
14:00
We monitor and evaluate projects, we'd like to know how will we
14:05
measure when we've reached this?
14:07
We want the same thing in this as well.
14:10
So I'll give you an example for the impact that I wanted to make on my
14:15
team of it being a great place to work.
14:19
And when I say my team, I don't mean the people I just supervised.
14:23
As a Country Manager I also oversaw 50 people.
14:26
So for the entire team, I had this vision of making my organization
14:33
in the country where I was working the best place to work.
14:38
And how I knew that I was going to achieve that was through the engagement
14:44
surveys that we did annually.
14:46
So I had an idea of what score that I would like to achieve.
14:51
As well as through the level of turnover, so having a very low turnover meant that
14:59
we were retaining staff, which meant that people liked working with us.
15:05
They liked working with our team.
15:09
And at the end of my time with that team, I, I was able to lower
15:16
turnover and increase engagement.
15:19
And I think that part of the reason I was able to do that was because I had a very
15:24
specific goal that I wanted to achieve and was able to communicate that goal,
15:30
not only to myself, but also with my team.
15:33
Because it was clear to me where we were going and where I wanted us to go
15:38
I was able to let everyone know, and we all were able to
15:43
go together on this journey.
15:46
And if I hadn't had that clear destination, I'm not sure that
15:50
we would have ended up there. Maybe I would not have made or put in the same amount of effort toward
15:57
it you know, consciously as when I had this specific idea of the impact
16:03
I wanted to create and how I knew I could measure that we had created it.
16:11
Once again, the first step to making an impact as a humanitarian and development
16:17
leader is defining what that impact is.
16:21
You need to know where you're going.
16:24
You need to have a clear vision. Otherwise, you will just drive in circles like my husband and I did before we
16:33
knew exactly where our campground was.
16:35
And believe me, when you're in Kenya, in the middle of a park with rhinos
16:41
and hippos and lions and hyenas, you don't want to be just driving aimlessly.
16:49
And I know as leaders, it's likely that you're not in as
16:55
risky a situation as that.
16:58
However, if we don't take some time and really think about the impact we want
17:05
to create and where we're going, then we're going to just be driving in circles
17:11
in terms of what we're doing and our productivity and the use of our time.
17:18
And this brings me to what we are going to cover in our next episode, which
17:26
is how to efficiently manage your time and tasks so that you make an impact.
17:34
So today we talked about what's the first step to making an impact as
17:40
a humanitarian development leader. And next week, we're going to talk about how to efficiently manage your time
17:47
and tasks so that you make an impact.
17:51
All right. So now that you know what your impact is until next week, keep broadening it.
17:58
Bye for now. Hey, if you are ready to step up your leadership game, I want to invite you to
18:05
join my coaching course for aid worker leaders, where you're going to learn.
18:09
How to master coaching skills in order to empower your team to become more
18:14
proactive, confident, and motivated at what they do, which of course will
18:20
help you achieve more impact for them.
18:22
And for you just head over to www.
18:26
aidforaidworkers. com and click on the coaching course waiting list.
18:31
So you'll be the first to know when doors open for the next enrollment.
18:36
Can't wait to see you there.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More