Give Up Comfort to Grow Up As a Leader

Give Up Comfort to Grow Up As a LeaderInterview with Wendy Higgins

Wendy Higgins chuckles as she recalls trekking through the wetlands of coastal Oregon in her high heels. A few years ago, she never would have imagined herself inspecting fish hatcheries as a city councilwoman. However, the unexpected ceases to surprise Ms. Higgins these days. Having stepped outside of her comfort zone time after time over the past four years, she is growing accustomed to walking through unfamiliar terrain.

Four years ago, Wendy was living in a comfortable home, succeeding in her career as a hotel manager, and enjoying a happy marriage. Even so, she wasn't content. Deep inside, something kept gnawing at her to do more with her life. She committed to spending time in prayer and reflection to find direction for her future.

During her season of introspection, Wendy stumbled across a daily leadership guide written by John Maxwell. Thumbing through the book, she became intrigued by its lessons on leadership, or "little nuggets of gold" as she describes them. As a passionate student of leadership, Ms. Higgins began scouring bookstores and the Internet for additional books authored by John Maxwell.

Meanwhile, in her workplace Wendy was wrestling with the responsibility of training fellow hotel managers. "I could train them to run a hotel," says Ms. Higgins, "but what about all of the other leadership principles they needed to know?" From her own on-the-job experiences, Ms. Higgins intuitively understood a lot about leadership, but she was at a loss for how to communicate her know-how. "When I found Dr. Maxwell's books, the first cover I read was Developing the Leader Within You, and I thought to myself, 'Oh, my goodness, I've found what I've been looking for!' so I ordered a half-dozen of his titles."

DEVELOPING LEADERS

Access to a leadership vocabulary came at a perfect time for Ms. Higgins. She immersed herself in study, and immediately organized a leadership class to train her staff. On Friday mornings, she invited the class into her home, fixed breakfast, and then guided a leadership discussion. Word about the class spread quickly, and soon Ms. Higgins was preparing to launch a second group.

Wendy Higgins chose to develop leaders instead of merely training people to do specific tasks. As a result, she was able to watch as her influence extended beyond her reach. In the course of Wendy's leadership training, two Hispanic leaders stepped forward and offered to facilitate a Spanish-language class. Although not fluent in Spanish, she attended nonetheless.

After noting that many in the class worked two jobs, Ms. Higgins became concerned about the toll the early-morning classes were taking on the students' schedules. "Most of them had put in a 14-hour day the night before, but they'd wake up early because they wanted to go to class. After class, they'd turn around and begin another 14-hour day. They were that dedicated to learning." To ease the strain on the students' time, Wendy recommended convening every other week instead of weekly. However, those attending refused; they considered the training too valuable to miss a week.

As she observed the Spanish-speaking leaders, Ms. Higgins began to see how leadership training was conferring benefits beyond her hotel. "When I began to look around the room, I realized the training wasn't just impacting our company. It was impacting the second jobs of our trainees, which were restaurants and other local businesses. You see, we aren't just developing leaders in our company, we're developing leaders in our community."

ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY

Noting the benefits leadership training had brought to her community, Wendy decided to partner with GiANT Impact to host the Maximum Impact Simulcast (MIS) in Cannon Beach. Some people voiced skepticism in the small town's ability to provide a sizable audience for MIS, but Ms. Higgins was undeterred. She began canvassing the area to publicize the event. "I had already sown seeds of credibility through the training I was doing in the community," says Ms. Higgins. "I could meet with employers in the area and point out that several of their workers had gone through my leadership classes." Reaping dividends from the principle of reciprocity, Ms. Higgins received sponsorship pledges to cover the event's costs in a matter of two weeks. When the day of the simulcast arrived, Cannon Beach's venue was packed.

Ms. Higgins leveraged her expertise from the hospitality industry to make MIS a memorable experience for leaders in Cannon Beach. "Many leaders, especially in a small community, are sole proprietors of businesses. It's difficult for them to get away from day-to-day operations to be trained. I wanted them to be pampered and taken care of from the time they walked in the door to the time they left. The setup, presentation, food, everything - we wanted to exceed their expectations." Thanks to her leadership, Wendy's vision came to fruition - every leader who attended rated the event positively on survey feedback.

TANGIBLE RESULTS

The day after the simulcast, Wendy hosted a dialogue with her team to recap ideas from the event. During the meeting, her team decided to adopt Dan Cathy's philosophy of second-mile service as their hospitality mantra. As Wendy recounts, the results were immediate. "The very next day, my maintenance supervisor said, 'we've already determined what second-mile service looks like in our department. When guests check out of the hotel and we are loading the car with their bags, we will wash the saltwater off of their car windshield. We want the last thing they experience with us to be something far beyond their expectations.'" It hadn't even been 24 hours, and Wendy's team had already found a concrete way to apply what they had learned!

Ms. Higgins points to other ways in which MIS has served as a catalytic event for her property. "One of things I've seen is that when you raise the level of leadership, you raise the level of service. Our senior leaders are training their leaders to be more thoughtful and conscious of what they do." Whether checking a guest in or out, delivering meaningful gestures of hospitality, or displaying integrity, Wendy has witnessed noticeable upgrades in the excellence of her team's interactions with guests.

LEADERSHIP IN DEMAND

After the Maximum Impact Simulcast, Wendy didn't have much time to relax. Fellow community leaders asked her to run for a seat on the Cannon Beach city council. Having recently completed a grueling stretch with the city's chamber of commerce, Wendy was inclined to pass on the offer. However, the same inkling that had nudged her outside of her comfort zone a few years earlier returned to propel her forward again. She decided to seek election. Within five days, she had garnered twice the requisite number of signatures to get her name on the ballot.

Ms. Higgins did not let her political inexperience intimidate her. Although she had less than two months to campaign and lacked a campaign manager, Wendy was able to garner enough votes to be elected. She credited her success to a lesson she learned at the simulcast. "You may not know the way forward, but you need to step out anyway. When you initiate, you'll find the answer or glean it from someone else. As Dan Cathy said, 'when the student is ready, the teach will appear,' but it's up to you to step out in faith."

STEP OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE!

Every stage of Wendy's leadership journey has been marked by her willingness to move beyond the confines of comfort. Whether equipping leaders on her staff, introducing leadership conferences to her community, or taking her leadership to the Cannon Beach city council, Ms. Higgins has accepted the challenge to step forward. "Sometimes we think we have to learn it all before we do it," she admits, "but the best place to learn leadership is in the trenches.