I've always been fascinated by people. We are so weird. Contradictory. Confusing. Beautiful. And that's just my neighbors, add another culture or a few hundred years of separation in time and you start to wonder if we're even on the same planet. I always want to figure out what drives people, so that I can work with them to make better decisions and tell better stories. This manifests first in my relationships, as a mentor, teacher, and friend. We have to meet others where they are by listening well and responding to what we hear rather than what we wish were happening. Sometimes this looks like adjusting an assignment because I realized my students were not ready for the questions I asked. Sometimes it means sitting in silence with someone because the problems they shared have no easy answers. Sometimes it means speaking hard truths that cut to the core of your mentee's avoidance. Understanding people is not exclusively the territory of interpersonal relationships. We can also use data to seek out patterns, trying to figure out cause and effect so that our choices moving forward will be less harmful or more equitable. In my work at OneHope we use surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gain real-time feedback on products and programs so they can be implemented more effectively. In my academic research, I used interviews, archival records, and ethnographic observations to explore the impacts of religious life on gender patterns in Tanzania. In a very different arena the same active listening and emergent responsiveness that govern my relationships help me understand complicated data more deeply. Whether leading a training session, cross-tabbing survey results, synthesizing hundreds of pages of information, or replying to an urgent email, I constantly work to stay alert to the people around me. Moving forward I will continue to learn and grow in my understanding of our human condition.
Listed skills include Team Building And Leadership, Achieving Targets, Initiative, Creative Thinking, and 12 others.