Leadership St. Louis / 20th Year Reunion

Its Thursday morning and last weekend I participated in teh first weekend of events for Leadership St. Louis.  LSL is an annual class selected, allegedly, though I doubt it with my inclusion, of leaders or potential leaders in St. Louis.  A colleague of mine is also involved.

On Friday, we drove to Cedar Creek Conference Center in New Haven, MO.  We did this at the early in the morning so we could spend all day learning about us.  Frankly, I think the program will be excellent.  We are going to have great opportunities to see and do things we might not otherwise have the chance to do.  However, the weekend, while a lot of fun, was at times a little slow moving.

One area, though, caused the most anxst and boredom.  We took a DiSC assessment.  It is a multiple choice test (questions) that ultimately result in a packet of information that tells you what type of leader are you.  Are you dominant, creative, do you lay in the weeds, etc.

I was a rules person who does not feel the need to be dominant.  In other words, I get stuff done, but I'm not in your face about it.  Now the assessment itself has value and as we read the descriptions of ourselves, they were for the most part spot on.  Mine was eerily accurate.  The presentation, though, was painful

The lady who did the presentation was quite proud of herself.  She also enjoy talking about Myers Briggs, something that I had not taken.  While discussing Myers Briggs, she used acronyms (a pet peeve of mine) when we did not know what the acronyms meant.  In any event, the 4 hours with her was not a good four hours.

The rest of the weekend was very good.  We did team building exercises.  Generally, I don't like those, but we had a lot of fun and did help break the ice since 65 strangers were together for the first time.  We had an open bar in the evening, which always helps breaking the ice.

We had to put on a little ten minute show.  The group time to put the show together was also fun, but my group was good.  I avoided many of the particularly "take charge" people that can irritate me.

That was last weekend.  This weekend, I am going to my 20th high school reunion.  It seems like yesterday that i graduate high school.  I remember being in the church.  I remember leaving in the limo my parents had rented (or won at an auction) and driving around town.  IT seemed like the whole world was in front of us, and, I suppose it was.

18 years old is so young, but at the time, it seems so old.  you think you know so much about how the world works and what your place is in it.  In fact, you have no idea how it works or what your place in the world really is.  I guess, though, I still don't know place in the world.  In the end, isn't that the hardest thing, knowing your place, and more importantly being happy in your place, wherever your place is?  I think perspective is the most important attribute that a person can have.

In any event, its amazing how much things have changed since high school.  I'm the same person, but in some ways, I am so different.  I had no confidence in high school.  I had no feeling that I was special or that I could do special things.  I was just a person on a track with no control.  I look forward to seeing the class mates that make it.  I've seen a few class mates through the years, but recently, I've seen nobody.  It should be a great time to think back 20 years and remember how we were and how that shaped us into what we've become today.

This post got heavier than I intended when it started (that is one reason why I love writing...you don't know where its going).  I hope everybody has a great day.

Be easy

-cp