c o n f i d e n c e

I first pursued a purpose establishing the LUMA, environmental furnishings venture in Seattle, Washington, setting plans in place to manifest what I believed would be better for myself and others too. Facing uncertainties as opportunities, I leveraged innate organizational skills with past learnings to establish partnerships, find ways to progress, and to correct course as needed. And when ends didn’t meet, I managed cash flow with freelance design work to ensure the debts were always paid.

Overall, I learned the dedication required to handle every aspect of the business, as a foundation for effective relations in leadership positions to come, ready to relate with peers in various operational roles.

And later, supporting the interests for growth and fulfillment in staff members I led, would recall the personal satisfaction of striving for a professional passion.

f o r e s i g h t

Imbibing the human condition through backpacking travels around Europe and into the Middle East then enriched an affinity for understanding others’ points of view. As an amateur anthropologist, I practiced listening attentively through language barriers, immersed in strangers’ lifestyles, their happiness, hardships, and hopes through encounters that often felt like we had always been friends.

Visiting historical sites along the way was an impetus for hindsight, to avoid past mistakes and increase gratitude as a basis to improve ourselves and those who follow after. Ancient artifacts, architecture, and approaches to life alluded to prudent forethought too, conjuring the patience and fortitude to achieve meaningful things from simple beginnings over generational durations of time and with those future generations in mind . . .

Living in Portugal, wandering the hills near my home in Leiria, I noticed brambly, gray branched trees resembling oak, with the rough, lower bark stripped off the smooth, exposed trunks. And the number ‘9’ was mysteriously spray painted on each one. Later recognizing them as cork trees while spending a few days on a cork orchard in the southern, Algarve region, I learned that the farmers planted saplings for their grandchildren—not for themselves.

This noble tradition revealed that the tree bark required about 30 years of growth to thicken to its minimal worth. And it took another 10 years successively thereafter for the bark to regrow to its full, commercial thickness.

Hence, the spray painted numbers I’d seen represented the last digit of the harvest year, 1999, remaining visible as the bark grew from within, to indicate its next harvest due in 2009.

d i a l o g u e

Communications and relations for success were the subsequent theme in a Project Manager role at Intel Corporation near Portland, Oregon. Although I hadn’t taken Office Politics 101  in university, life’s past insights would instead provide apt preparation for yet another realm of leadership—enterprise.

An international organization of over 100,000 employees has inherently more intricate dynamics than a rural one of 100. Although, based on our human similarities, the skills of listening, comprehending, creating, and communicating remain applicable across the range.

Respected experience, interpersonal skills, and coming onboard with a fresh outlook, allowed me to ramp up on the program challenges rapidly and impartially. Interviews to hear stakeholders in our own, and in our partner group revealed the relevant history, personalities, and corporate culture exigencies to be addressed.

I recognized the need to clarify roles and responsibilities and conduits of team communication, to reiterate mutual goals, and to facilitate compromises without people feeling compromised.

I found these solutions best accomplished by reaching out with a personal approach, offering alternatives, considering issues objectively, and productively holding people accountable to resolve relationship issues.

And, indeed, we were able to far exceed our original deliverables, before staging a phased transition to place the program completely in our partner’s hands.

s e r v i c e

Entering a service sector, identifying organizational needs, developing operations, and creating online interactions for about 1000 annual, study abroad students and up to 100 staff became my next forte over a tenure of nearly nine years as Director of Institute Development with Qasid Arabic Institute in Amman, Jordan.

Extending from past leadership positions and from mobile device design at Intel, I drove projects involving website upgrades, an online registration system, and an internet, language instruction offering. Developing engaging, online services was an intriguing, communications challenge, focusing on digital interactions to delight globally diverse, end user sensibilities.

The sensory, design confines of a multimedia, computer interface—in contrast to designing the computer itself—pushed the envelope of insightful perception of people’s preferences and propensities in order to deliver brand building, customer experiences.

Proactively assessing other opportunities and bringing solutions, I initiated a weekly meeting for department heads to improve administrative coordination and institute service quality. And for faculty, I implemented consistent, textbook publishing standards with white spiral bindings to be unobtrusive when teaching and to fold 180° for ease of holding while standing. The format also saved desk space for students, and allowed facing pages to remain flat without flipping themselves closed as with regular, glued bindings.

Kindling kindness for others to reach beyond themselves has since been perhaps the most meaningful leadership role as a seed to begin making an even more enduring difference.

With Jordan having the second highest refugee population per capita in the world—approaching 30%—an awareness of those in deprivation is inescapable when living there. Professional  involvement in providing aid, however, is limited due to restrictions on foreigners working domestically. Still, craving to do more than simply give to charities, near the end of 2017, I recognized a personal opportunity and forged ahead. 

I didn’t have a lot of money. But I had some.

I didn’t have a lot of time. But I had some.

And I didn’t know much Arabic. But I knew many Arabs who spoke my English tongue.

One was Abu Yazeed, the head of a local NGO, the Jabal Zamzam Association, whom I’d recently met. So, I pitched the idea of volunteering a bit of time and about 50 of bags of khubz flat bread to bring to Syrian refugees each weekend from the late fall to mid spring seasons.

It was a small gesture compared to the scale of projects the organization usually handled. But Abu Yazeed knew that a true intention is what matters most, as does every trace of assistance to even a single person in need. So he took the time to coordinate our trips to the camps together and introduce me to the families.

Following up in the same manner over the next three years I engaged our locality too, composing descriptions of the visits, raising thousands of dollars of donations, and delivering carloads food, clothes, funds, and financing heating fuels. And through appeals to friends and neighbors, they too joined the excursions to share their care and concern in person and to demonstrate to those who have been displaced that they are not alone.

The endeavor would embody all the prior leadership learnings and display how a small cause can lead to something larger when it takes a heartfelt hold.

Where it leads from here, then, we’ll have to wait and see.

For now though, you can see the PERSONAL | OUTREACH page herein for more details.