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Being Invited vs Inviting Yourself

I was thinking about the beginning. The first days, months and now years of what I think of as “Reinventing Chrissanne Long.” Last night I was recognized as an Emerging Leader in Polk County. I joined an elite group of individuals who have been honored with this distinction over the last 8 years.

As I realized that I had been selected, I was overcome with emotion – humbled by the feeling of being recognized in this way, but also thrilled at the realization that what I am doing is making a difference, at least, in the eyes of the people selecting the winners of this beautiful collection of Polk County leaders who are choosing to lead in their chosen professions.

Leadership is a choice. That is what I have come to understand.

Every single day, each of us wake up with the same number of hours. We look out at the day ahead of us and, depending on our DNA, our gender, our backgrounds, our education, and our emotional state, we make choices.

Over time, the fact that these are choices is forgotten and we begin to feel as if these are requirements. We have to go to work, we have to pay our bills, we have to read that email, or answer that call.

But no matter how much these things feel like requirements, they are always choices.

Always.

I was selected, but that isn’t the whole story. I was nominated, and I accepted the invitation and completed an application to be considered for this award.

But, what if I had never been nominated? What if I had not been selected? What if what I am doing wasn’t seen as valuable in the eyes of the community I love so hard? What if nobody noticed, or cared about the work I was doing?

Being invited to join this group of amazing people is a wonderful feeling.

But the greatest and most exhilarating reward is the feeling that I invited myself to the conversation. I made the choice to show up and do the work, and take risks and bring value.

In those early days, I didn’t know if it would work. But I chose to try anyway, because it was all I knew to give – and it was important to me that I started, that I just BEGAN doing something, no matter how small it seemed.

Nobody asked me to do this. No invitations were sent.

Nobody gave me an instruction manual and said, “Here, go do this.”

And there wasn’t any requirement that I keep showing up. People would have understood (or not noticed, or cared) if I had decided to quit along the way.

It was always my choice.

If there’s any lesson in this moment. If there’s any reason I stood on stage with those amazing young people who show up and do great things, it’s this:

Whether or not you are ever recognized, the work you do matters. The days, months and years you choose to show up, and do something- big or small – and do that over and over and over again – that little contribution you’re making is important, because YOU know that it feels scary, awkward, uncomfortable and insignificant. And when you do it anyway, when you continue to choose to contribute, and be YOU, whether or not you are invited… that is the stuff that fills us with satisfaction.

That is the real purpose of life. That is what Leadership is. That is who we are all capable of being, even when we’re looking at this big scary world, filled with all these incredible people, and we think, “That’s not me, I am not a Leader, I’ll never be good enough.” We have to make a choice to do it anyway.

Because it’s not about the applause. It’s about making the world better, and it’s about making ourselves better along the way.

It’s about inviting yourself. That’s where it starts anyway.

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Re-discovering Passion

By Sarah Keener

Tonight, I had an incredible opportunity to attend a fundraising dinner for a local non-profit which is a community of believers, walking with the homeless.  Gospel, Inc is a grassroots organization where the volunteers and leaders are right out there, befriending the homeless of our amazing city.

I’ve been to these dinners before.  A prayer, a speech, a sad video, they ask you for money, you fill out your envelope, you go home full of good food and with a few dollars less in your pocket.  This wasn’t that dinner.

The light bulb came back on.  My spark was re-ignited.  I remembered.

I remembered making cookies and serving them on Christmas Eve with my daughter.  (And if you know me, you know I don’t bake…that was LOVE)  I remembered driving around with my aunt and my mother-in-law, feeding the homeless chili when the weather got cold.  Most of all, I remembered being a 16 year old girl, staying at the Bowery in New York City, a senior in high school, on my senior mission trip.  We sat at a piano while a homeless man who was staying at the Bowery played and sang.  I sat right next to him.  The homeless man became a human.  His gratitude and pure love poured over me.  And I was the one who was supposed to be helping him!  I don’t remember his name, but I remember his love and passion and understanding, his story.

In my heart, I have always felt called to help the homeless.  But we need to help them beyond feeding them every day.  (Feeding them is first priority, but there must be more)  Why do we have a shortage of jobs and an overage of homeless?  While I do understand the reality that some will never be able to work due to circumstances beyond our control, some are able to work, they just don’t know how.  I was able to come out of the dinner, with a new idea, a new perspective to solve two problems with one solution.  Let’s help these men and women work, in good jobs, and make it a joint effort.

Is this going to work?  I don’t know.  What I do know, is I found my spark again.  MY cause… My reasoning.

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We are Strong Without a Strong Mayor

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Written by Chrissanne Long | October 9, 2017

Where did this “Strong Mayor” idea Come from?

In 2013, Lakeland was caught off guard by a scandal that drew national attention, and resulted in several months of embarrassing discussions, and a long, drawn out impasse in our city government.

This post is not to recount the history of that scandal —a Google search will provide you with all the information you need to better understand how we arrived at this point. Instead, my goal is simply to share my observations from my perspective of that time, as an engaged, and passionate citizen with a singular agenda:

To bring about economic growth and progress though collaboration and attention to the greatest assets we have in this city – the people.

When the police scandal was brought to light, in 2013, I had a role as a paid social media consultant for the Wiggs for Mayor campaign. It was my first “inside” look at the way our city is run, and, at the time, I was uneducated about the system of government that we have had in place in Lakeland since 1922. The Council-Manager system of government, as we are all learning now, is one in which we are led by a commission and a mayor, all holding equal power, with their votes being counted equally. If you’re still fuzzy about the differences between the two systems, you can read the definitions here: http://www.nlc.org/forms-of-municipal-government

When the 50+ page report was released in June of 2013, outlining all the various cases of misconduct and poor decisions, I along with many other citizens, read the document with growing angst and concern for the situation in our city. We discussed this on social media, many people wrote letters to the editor, and we waited for the commission to act.

At that time, it seemed that the commission was stuck – not because of the form of government, or anything else, but because they could not agree. I don’t think a Strong Mayor form of government could have changed that.

As time went by, we realized that our commissioners were not going to make the decisions that most of us felt would be appropriate. Personally, I thought swift action to remove Lisa Womack would have resolved the prolonged issues that were brought to the surface between Womack and our then State Attorney, Jerry Hill. But the commission could not make that decision —only the city manager has the authority to fire the Chief. And yet, there was no effort from the commission to encourage this decision, nor a decision to remove Doug Thomas. The commission—under the current charter—can only fire 2 key staff members: the City Manager and the City Attorney.

Because they couldn’t come to consensus, they did nothing. And meanwhile, the citizens grew more and more frustrated.

It would have been a tough decision —one that no one would want to find themselves having to make. But that’s the thing about leadership: Being a leader is not about whether we’re going to agree with (and keep) our friends, but whether we’re doing what is best for those we serve. If a friend expects anything else from a leader, that’s not friendship.

Because the commission was unable to come to consensus on this issue, and the issue dragged on for what seemed an eternity, the discussion and ultimately the Strong Mayor initiative emerged.

Leading us out of a Rut

In 2014, when Howard Wiggs was elected as Mayor, I watched as these issues with Police Chief Womack and Doug Thomas dragged on through the months immediately after the election, there was tension on the dais I could only describe as a fierce loyalty to the preceding leader that played itself out in a divided commission, on many issues, not just as they related to Womack/Thomas, but also how they related to the day-to-day business.

Chief Womack resigned her post in February of 2014, and Chief Larry Giddens was promoted later that year. In September of 2015, Doug Thomas resigned. Tony Delgado accepted the role of City Manager on January 4, of 2016, and served as our interim city manager while the necessary actions were taken to decide that Tony Delgado would be offered that position permanently. The work that Chief Giddens and Mr. Delgado have performed in their new positions has been exemplary.

They are both loved and respected – both meriting this admiration because of their commitment to leading and learning from the experiences of the past. Through this difficult phase, we realized what can happen when we have leaders in these roles that are not in sync with our community. We understand, now more than ever, how valuable the people in these two positions (Chief and City Manager) are to the efficient and effective leadership and management of our city.

Since Giddens and Delgado have found themselves in these new roles, I believe nearly everyone would agree that things are consistently changing for the better in this city. From my personal view, there has been an immense relief of the stagnation that existed on the commission in that 2-year period.

Time to Lead

What we need now, is EFFECTIVE leadership. We don’t need a strong mayor. We need leaders who will make the hard decisions, and listen to each other and to the voters.  We need a dais that stands up for what is best for the community, and will do the hard work required to listen to what the people are asking.

I think we are getting closer to that today. And a change in the charter is not necessary, at least not right now.

I believe the right decisions are being made and I believe there has not been enough time for us to see —again, with fresh eyes—what happens when EFFECTIVE leaders are able to lead within the council-manager system of government.

This November, we have an open seat for a new mayor, and potentially 3 new seats for candidates for commission, as Commissioner Don Selvage and Edie Yates have completed their terms and are not running for re-election, and Commissioner Malless’s seat is opposed by new candidates. This means there could potentially be 4 new leaders positioned to take us to the next level as a city.

Emerging Leaders Keeping Momentum

If we vote to change the charter, in favor of a Strong Mayor, not only do we not allow these new leaders to show us why this form of government has worked for so many years, we also run the risk of losing momentum.

We will invariably lose our city manager, and other key staff members and the existing staff will be required not only to adjust to an entirely new class of commissioners and new mayor, this transition will take place all while staff must figure out a new system for running the city.

I am one who welcomes change, embraces progress and looks to find new ways to improve our world.  But I am not in favor of this change. Not today. I believe we need to focus on what really matters – building new leaders, and coming together as a community.

Building Trust and Transparency

Today, we have the duty to ourselves and the future leaders of our community to continue to learn from the lessons of our recent past, and we must encourage these new leaders to work diligently to prevent that stagnation and ineffective government from happening again. I believe we will be able to look back in 4 years and see that the charter was written by wise leaders and that we are a strong city, powered by strong and wise citizens who believe in the power of the people, not in a change that will put the power into a single person’s hands.

In the next 4 years, I believe we will see more effort to listen, to engage and to come to consensus – not because of a change in our charter, but because we learned from history, and this new generation of leaders wants to bring accountability, transparency, trust and efficiency back to our government. We owe them, and ourselves the chance to see this through.

On November 7, we have the opportunity to vote on this new generation of leaders, and, we also have the opportunity to vote to keep our current form of government in place, to leave the power of our future in the hands of ALL of the leaders we choose to represent us. 

Vote No to Amend Lakeland’s Charter. Vote No to change to a Mayor/Commission Plan with the Mayor as Chief Executive.

 

Note: This post is written by Chrissanne Long, a registered voter in Lakeland, FL. This post is not a paid endorsement. It reflects the personal opinions of the author and owner of BeAwesomeDaily, an independently owned and managed site, with no connection to the No Boss Mayor campaign. If there are any questions about this post, or requests for comment, please contact chrissanne (at) maximizedigital.com

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