Looking ahead into the new year, we have some great new initiatives I am excited to share. We just had our State of the Union for EPM on the 30th, and we’re proud of what we have strengthened and developed in 2021 that will serve us heading into the future. Next week I will share more about the State of the Union and where we are heading with rolling out in 2022, but first, it’s important to identify where those initiatives and developments originated.
I repeat this almost every week, but we are in the business of empowering people. That starts with our leadership and lighting the way for others. This past year our executive leadership focused on radical transparency even through discomfort, struggle, and navigating different mediums to deliver that while also supporting an environment that allowed for candor.
The Good Bad and Ugly of Radical Transparency
On its face, transparency is rooted in honesty and truth and working together to find solutions. But in reality, it can feel really uncomfortable to lay it all out or to receive what’s being laid out. We have to be open about what’s not working. We have to reveal our mistakes and be open to hearing about how our action or inaction affects others.
It’s not easy and definitely not natural for many people, so it’s on us as leaders to keep showing up and sitting with that discomfort and allowing others to see how that discomfort helps us grow. It’s a process, and not everybody is going to get there the same way, so we have to evolve our approach to make it inclusive as possible though that can open us up to disagreements and struggle. We get to light the way about how to struggle well.
Prioritizing Personal Development
Being successful at anything takes commitment, struggle, and action (or purposeful inaction). By acknowledging our hope that every person at EPM learns, grows, and leaves it better than they found it – for whatever length of time they are with us, we also have to lead with a bottom-up approach. We serve those we lead so they can serve our organization and community. Candor is kindness because it’s honest and it’s direct. It’s like a muscle that many people need the space and time to develop, but it has to be a priority.
As leaders, we can encourage this development by giving opportunities to build it and modeling it through everything we do today. Our organization is like an ecosystem. We want to keep it healthy, so we have to keep developing it and being optimistic about how we work together to grow it.
This is something we have worked on and grown and nurtured, and going into 2022, we will continue to expand it and relate it back to our mission and vision to promote a healthy ecosystem.
Our Mission to Make Others Successful Everyday
At the end of the day, our industry is successful because of the people who make it up. How do we execute and perform every day, and how do we come together? The best way to come together is through mutual respect, candor, and a common mission to serve and empower others. And radical transparency on the part of leadership is the first best step towards helping others develop themselves.