Comments on: New Profit’s Gathering of Leaders & Your Seek:Sought Ratio http://thesocialage.com/blog/2008/03/06/new-profits-gathering-of-leaders-your-seeksought-ratio/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:01:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: Wendy Mackie http://thesocialage.com/blog/2008/03/06/new-profits-gathering-of-leaders-your-seeksought-ratio/#comment-4274 Wendy Mackie Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:29:01 +0000 http://thesocialage.com/blog/2008/03/06/new-profits-gathering-of-leaders-your-seeksought-ratio/#comment-4274 My seeker/sought after ratio is about 50/50. That could be because I am in a so-called "middle management" position in my agency. It is definately because I am constantly seeking to learn more about how to make things better and then to teach whomever I can about the ideas I have for this change. This pattern of actions has spurred people to seek out my opinions as well as to use me as a sounding board for thier concerns...keeping me at a 50/50 ratio. I maintain this balance through listening and talking to coworkers on the frontlines and with the senior managers of the agency, as well as to the community leaders, schools, youth, parents, etc. My thoughts are that, no matter where you are in the beginner to expert scale of knowledge, there is always room for growth, learning and the seeking of knowlege. On the flip side of that, I know as a youth worker, that the youth have as much or more to teach me as I do them. In my opinion, even the most experienced in the field should be seeking to learn what the beginners are doing and why so that they might (1)offer up thier learned ways, (2)figure out why trends are ensuing (3) advertise thier knowlegde base and (4)suggest creative solutions. It is my experience, as a person who has worked in the non-profit field for over 15 years, that we are all teachers - sought after and seeking. There are a multitude of avenues of specialties and issues one can pursue, there is no way any one person could know everything there is to know...even in the same organization, working toward the same goal, there are people on the front lines who have better insight on certain subjects than the CEO...and as it should be! Do your specialty well and work together in sharing the pertinant information to work better and stronger toward a common goal. Learning and teaching is a continuum. I had read about the "Gathering of Leaders" on the New Profit Website and thought, "I would love to attend that!" In seeking more information toward that end, I found this website which inspired me to respond....I came to this website as a knowledge seeker and, in return, I hope I have also offered some insight. I still want to know how to attend that conference. Please forward any info if you are aware. Sincerely, Wendy Mackie My seeker/sought after ratio is about 50/50. That could be because I am in a so-called “middle management” position in my agency. It is definately because I am constantly seeking to learn more about how to make things better and then to teach whomever I can about the ideas I have for this change. This pattern of actions has spurred people to seek out my opinions as well as to use me as a sounding board for thier concerns…keeping me at a 50/50 ratio.

I maintain this balance through listening and talking to coworkers on the frontlines and with the senior managers of the agency, as well as to the community leaders, schools, youth, parents, etc.

My thoughts are that, no matter where you are in the beginner to expert scale of knowledge, there is always room for growth, learning and the seeking of knowlege. On the flip side of that, I know as a youth worker, that the youth have as much or more to teach me as I do them. In my opinion, even the most experienced in the field should be seeking to learn what the beginners are doing and why so that they might (1)offer up thier learned ways, (2)figure out why trends are ensuing (3) advertise thier knowlegde base and (4)suggest creative solutions.

It is my experience, as a person who has worked in the non-profit field for over 15 years, that we are all teachers - sought after and seeking. There are a multitude of avenues of specialties and issues one can pursue, there is no way any one person could know everything there is to know…even in the same organization, working toward the same goal, there are people on the front lines who have better insight on certain subjects than the CEO…and as it should be! Do your specialty well and work together in sharing the pertinant information to work better and stronger toward a common goal.

Learning and teaching is a continuum. I had read about the “Gathering of Leaders” on the New Profit Website and thought, “I would love to attend that!” In seeking more information toward that end, I found this website which inspired me to respond….I came to this website as a knowledge seeker and, in return, I hope I have also offered some insight.

I still want to know how to attend that conference. Please forward any info if you are aware.

Sincerely,
Wendy Mackie

]]> By: Vourdanne Ignegongba http://thesocialage.com/blog/2008/03/06/new-profits-gathering-of-leaders-your-seeksought-ratio/#comment-3951 Vourdanne Ignegongba Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:15:13 +0000 http://thesocialage.com/blog/2008/03/06/new-profits-gathering-of-leaders-your-seeksought-ratio/#comment-3951 This is an interesting piece. In the end, the seek to sought ratio really measures your status and growth potential through learning from others. According to this definition a star celebrity in the field would have a lower seek to sought ratio than an amateur rookie. The amateur rookie is clearly a student seeking to learn from the expert in order to grow. That can be achieved with intense practice and observation. The rookie would first need to offer something valuable then master the art of marketing and selling himself through body language, interesting conversation and practice by putting himself on the field as much as possible. In the field, momentum and energy matter … The question really is how does the star celebrity maintain a ratio of 1. The answer maybe lies in changing environment and setting in order to keep learning. In other words, the star celebrity needs to think outside the box and experiment different fields, remote fields with potentially superstars. That could mean looking in other cultures, looking for a different kind of people. Vourdanne Ignegongba Makumba Consulting This is an interesting piece.

In the end, the seek to sought ratio really measures your status and growth potential through learning from others. According to this definition a star celebrity in the field would have a lower seek to sought ratio than an amateur rookie.

The amateur rookie is clearly a student seeking to learn from the expert in order to grow. That can be achieved with intense practice and observation. The rookie would first need to offer something valuable then master the art of marketing and selling himself through body language, interesting conversation and practice by putting himself on the field as much as possible. In the field, momentum and energy matter …

The question really is how does the star celebrity maintain a ratio of 1. The answer maybe lies in changing environment and setting in order to keep learning. In other words, the star celebrity needs to think outside the box and experiment different fields, remote fields with potentially superstars. That could mean looking in other cultures, looking for a different kind of people.

Vourdanne Ignegongba
Makumba Consulting

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