[Applause]
I would like to introduce you to two
servant leaders these two individuals
were the first introduction to me while
I didn’t have the term servant leaders
or transformational leaders anywhere in
my vocabulary anywhere in my mind
in hindsight in retrospect I now know
that these two individuals James and
Bertha Hardy my dear sweet parents
worked examples of servant leaders
wonderful individuals both no longer
with us but they set a path for me that
I didn’t even know so these individuals
were farmers right here in Greenville
they raised eight eight eight children
four boys and four girls they needed
some labor for the farm right so they
raised these beautiful children and had
the ability back then in the back in the
day just to make sure that those a kids
had access and and could and did it in
post-secondary education
I called him servant leaders because my
father but neither one actually got
formal education the guide to high
school but never finished and then of
course go to college but I often tell
people that if my father had had the
opportunity to do so he would have been
an extremely dangerous man
because he was a very intelligent just
raw natural intelligence when things
went wrong in the community and back in
the day the two groups of people in the
community were black folk and white folk
when there was something going wrong my
father was the one that people would go
to he and my mother had this thing what
we called the community garden where
people in the community could go into
this garden
and he had two rules one get only what
you need make sure you leave some for
others and the second one keep the
garden clean right now we add the things
that you would expect on a farm like
tobacco
corn cucumbers we had pigs we had hogs
we had chickens we have news you know
dogs and cat we didn’t have a lot of
cats mommy didn’t like cats so you
didn’t have a lot of cats at her house
and there’s a lot you can do with a hog
y’all did you know that eastern North
Carolina people probably know that right
there’s a lot you can use the pig for
and my daddy used it for it all of that
and then some
right but these individuals to me for
good examples of servant leadership and
they helped to transform a community in
a church individuals and even our family
now transformational leadership is this
phenomenon out there right it has names
and it has definitions and it has
characteristics and all of that in
essence when you when an individual is
going to go through some
transformational leadership first of all
I think one needs to be very much self
aware right if you don’t know who you
are as a person then helping others or
leading others or even trying to get
into this thing of changing an
organization or an environment won’t
happen you have to be able to bring your
authentic self to that organization to
be able to have some impact now to be
able to do that that means you got to
dig do
do you dig you got to know yourself and
do some self-reflection and
introspection and when you do that if
you like me you find there’s some things
you like and there’s some things you
really don’t like right my husband I
would have that conversation where he
would tell me things he didn’t like
about me and I’d tell him things I
didn’t like about him right and some
things I said you know what sweetie I’m
gonna work on this one and this one and
this one but this one over here I’m
gonna keep it and you just got to learn
to let it and if you don’t love it just
accept it because I’m gonna be I’m
that’s me right I know myself extremely
well I know my strengths I know my
weaknesses I know my pet peeves I know
what makes me tick and I’m comfortable
with myself it took me a while to get
there
but I’m very comfortable with Virginia
Dare Hardy
not everybody is but that’s okay
I am which entails because I am then
that allows me to have a little bit more
sensitivity and emotional intelligence
and when talking to and listening to
others so from a leadership perspective
I try to be in tune to other folk and
see what’s bothering them pay attention
to their verbals but more importantly to
their nonverbals because nonverbals
speak louder than your verbals so
emotional intelligence says to pay
attention to other people
transformational leaders do some of that
now these are three books I really like
Ron Heifetz leadership without easy
answers good – great Jim Collins those
who you may have heard at least the good
to great and the other one is the power
of nice right by Linda Colville and
Robin Taylor I may have the first names
the names twitch
these ladies wrote a book forward by Jay
Leno if that tells you anything but they
wrote this book through the eyes of
women and talking about how do women use
was stereotypically considered to be a
strength of women which is being nice
being friendly being kind how do you use
that as a strength because in essence to
be a good leader to be a strong
effective leader doesn’t mean you have
to be mean and nasty right you can be
nice and still be a leader and so that’s
what that book is talking about but Ron
Heifetz says it does something and one
in his book that talks about the
difference between leader and leadership
he says that a leader is a person who
helps who gives direction and helps to
direct when the direction is known
[Music]
leadership on the other hand is being
involved being engaged when their
situation is difficult when it is
challenging and you don’t quite know
from what how you’re gonna get from
point A to point B so leaders there are
a lot of leaders but do those leaders to
have effective leadership have
transformational leadership because the
two things are extremely different now
when I came to to I’ve been in this
university for twenty four years I was
12 if you’re trying to guess how old I
am
just about to turn 13 when I started I’m
a young pup and so but in this role I’ve
been here for seven eight years give or
take so when I got in this role one of
the things that I recognized was that
what I inherited was a wounded
organization wounded because they had
been going through a lot of transitions
with leaders and with all types of
different things and people with
personalities and so they were wounded
there was not a lot of trust internally
or externally there was not a lot of
team-building getting out playing well
in the sandbox and there was not a lot
of trust or credibility so when I got
here I had to end up doing a very deep
dive dive into what was happening and
why it was happening we needed to get an
understanding and an exploration of what
people were seeing because if we were
going to transform the organization we
needed to know what people thought the
organization was at the moment where are
we right now how did we get here
and how do we move forward so what I
ended up doing was actually going around
and talking to everybody I did
internally and talking to my direct
reports and their unis I went to the
unit meetings ask questions I went to
all of the deans and all of the vice
chancellors I only had about five
questions I asked everybody the same
questions now I may have had some
follow-ups went based on their responses
but basically asked them the same five
questions and all I did was take notes I
took tons of notes I did not respond at
or like now I’m a counselor by training
so I’m used to sitting quietly I can
outwait you in silence now right right
because what we do
but what I didn’t do was make promises
because I didn’t want to make a promise
that I couldn’t keep because if I had
made a promise and didn’t keep it even
if the reason for not keeping it was
legitimate and valid I would have
already cut my legs out from underneath
because the trust wouldn’t have been
there all right so all I did was listen
now understand when you go talk to folks
and ask them questions about your area
and your organization people were free
they were they were happy to tell you
all to tell me all the bad and all the
ugly I got lots of notes if you want to
see them pulling out the good took some
effort can you tell me what is actually
working how is it working what is it
that you want if you could create this
thing what would it look like
right so we did a lot of deep diving and
trying to pull out information from
folks once I got all that information I
then brought that information back to my
team now understand I’ve got to build a
team I got to build this team because
these people don’t know me and I don’t
know them and and what they had
experienced before wasn’t always
positive so I’m coming in already behind
the eight ball so I’ve got to get them
to trust me and as Shakespeare has said
methinks thou does protest too much if
I’ve got to tell people that I’m ABCD I
think something’s wrong why because if I
have to tell you I’m nice and tell you
you can trust me then I’m not living it
so my actions my behaviors need to tell
people that and need to be genuine and
then the trust will come and so we were
able to build that team now I did it
based upon three eyes I tried to live my
life and lead by these three eyes
integrity speaks for itself right say
what you mean mean what you say do what
you say you’re gonna do it’s about the
trust being ethical being honest right
[Music]
if I don’t know I’m gonna tell you I
don’t know not afraid to admit what I
don’t know the other one piece is about
being inclusive I’m big on saying to
folks asking the question still to this
day whose voice is missing from the
table because you want to make sure you
have the right people the right voices
at the table
now that’s may sometime mean as a leader
that the person at the table is somebody
whose voice you really don’t want to
hear right
because they’re gonna push they’re gonna
ask you hard questions okay
but those are the people you want there
because if all if the only people at the
table are the people who look like you
think like you act like you come from
the same similar background as you then
it makes for very very very kind of
boring situation and you have no
creativity I never want yes people
around me I want people who are going to
push the envelope and make me think
because though that means we’re going to
get a good product or make a good
decision at the end all right and the
other piece is about intentionality be
intentional I’m very deliberate very
intentional about the decisions and the
actions that must be made I don’t
believe that decisions have to be made
right now it’s a rarity that a decision
has to be made immediately hence be
intentional about bringing the right
people to the table to have the
conversations to talk it through so that
you make a better decision now I had to
decide in that aspect of was I gonna
tear the house down was I gonna break it
all up and just start over or was that
gonna repair
I’ve opted to repair because there was a
lot of good and a very strong foundation
that we needed we could build from now
in building that as hot as Ron Heifetz
would say now excuse me Jim Collins
would say you’ve got to get the right
people on the bus right and not only get
them on the bus the right people you got
to get them sitting in the right seats
so they got to use those skill sets to
their strengths to the best to their
advantage now we tend to forget the
second part of Jim Collins quote he says
you have to get the right people on the
bus and get them in the right seats but
he also said you got to get the wrong
people off the bus right
which means that somehow those people
who don’t fit he’s got to go now I was
fortunate and that sums people we had to
let go but most people realize that they
were not fitting in with this
transformation and so those individuals
decided to take themselves off the bus
and taking people off the bus is never
easy but is necessary now this
transformational and leadership thing
the leadership in general has I think
two roles right one is being on the
balcony sometimes you have to be on the
balcony and while you’re there you’re
watching you are observing what’s going
on you’re trying to get the perspective
of everybody that’s there who’s doing
what how are they behaving trying to get
a feel for what’s happening what people
are thinking how they’re doing one of
the strengths you then as you observe
these people in the desert observe
what’s happening and then at some point
you’re gonna get on the dance floor and
when you get on this dance floor they’re
gonna be times when you dancing you’re
swaying
and sometimes you’re gonna leave this
dance all right you got it you got it
right so over the over the winter break
I wanted to learn how to salsa later on
and show you how to do it my Island and
learn how to salsa so this man was
teaching me to salsa and he was talking
to me and I was like okay I got it I got
it
obviously I didn’t have it because he
stopped and he put his hands on my hips
and yes I have hips thank you right and
he said stop trying to lead I got this
let me lead and you follow me and we’ll
be all right and I literally had to take
a breath and exhale and get my mind
right and once I did I followed and
that’s how I learned how to salsa okay
I think I got it now so this so leaders
you have to be on the balcony and
sometimes you have to be on that dance
floor and you have to lead and you have
to follow right so this transformation
thing requires you as a leader if you
were to have effective leadership it
requires that you know yourself that you
are keen are toned into other people
that you build strong teams that you
build trust build relationships that you
are paying attention that you have
integrity intentionality inclusivity and
that you check your assumptions right we
all have them we have these assumptions
about people and those assumptions can
get in our way when we interact with
people as leaders we all have biases we
all have prejudices we all know this
people may not like it but we have them
and but we need to check those
assumptions right people say to me all
the time when I see you Virginia
I don’t see a black woman and my
question to them is well who the heck do
you see
right I’m running I am let see me that
way
it’s okay these are part of my identity
it’s not the whole identity but it’s a
major part of my identity now if you
treat me differently because I am a
black woman yeah we got issues but if
you see me as such boobies cuz you need
to know who I am
so you got to know people get to know
people as you develop this leadership
concept now these are the wonderful
eight children of James and Bertha Hardy
this was at my wedding in 2009 right as
you can see in the waitress now I have
this up here because my father was the
leader of this family he was the leader
of this organization and he did run a
tight ship right but one of the two
things that he said there are many
things that resonate with me but two I
want to share with you today one she
would tell us don’t worry
until you see me worry which as a leader
is saying I got this I’m little I’m
gonna take care of us I need you to be a
part of it but I’ve got this and I’ve
got your back
and you can trust this and then the
second thing which goes along with it
was he wouldn’t he started these things
called family conferences and so no
matter where we were if there was and if
there were an issue in the family if one
of us had a problem he’d make the phone
calls and everybody come home to have
this conversation because according to
him if one of us was in trouble or not
doing well all of us was in we’re in
trouble and not doing well and the back
team concept that family and that we’re
here and we take care of each other and
we’re in tune to each other
resonates completely with this whole
notion of transformational leadership
Margaret Mead said a quote and I’m gonna
paraphrase it here but something to the
effect of people that
a small group of individuals can change
the world and in actuality that’s the
only way it can change the only way you
can have transformation and use your
leadership is to bring the team together
to inform excuse me to transform
whatever organization or situation
situation that you’re in
transformational leadership let’s lead
and transform to new horizons thank you [Applause]
I would like to introduce you to two
servant leaders these two individuals
were the first introduction to me while
I didn’t have the term servant leaders
or transformational leaders anywhere in
my vocabulary anywhere in my mind
in hindsight in retrospect I now know
that these two individuals James and
Bertha Hardy my dear sweet parents
worked examples of servant leaders
wonderful individuals both no longer
with us but they set a path for me that
I didn’t even know so these individuals
were farmers right here in Greenville
they raised eight eight eight children
four boys and four girls they needed
some labor for the farm right so they
raised these beautiful children and had
the ability back then in the back in the
day just to make sure that those a kids
had access and and could and did it in
post-secondary education
I called him servant leaders because my
father but neither one actually got
formal education the guide to high
school but never finished and then of
course go to college but I often tell
people that if my father had had the
opportunity to do so he would have been
an extremely dangerous man
because he was a very intelligent just
raw natural intelligence when things
went wrong in the community and back in
the day the two groups of people in the
community were black folk and white folk
when there was something going wrong my
father was the one that people would go
to he and my mother had this thing what
we called the community garden where
people in the community could go into
this garden
and he had two rules one get only what
you need make sure you leave some for
others and the second one keep the
garden clean right now we add the things
that you would expect on a farm like
tobacco
corn cucumbers we had pigs we had hogs
we had chickens we have news you know
dogs and cat we didn’t have a lot of
cats mommy didn’t like cats so you
didn’t have a lot of cats at her house
and there’s a lot you can do with a hog
y’all did you know that eastern North
Carolina people probably know that right
there’s a lot you can use the pig for
and my daddy used it for it all of that
and then some
right but these individuals to me for
good examples of servant leadership and
they helped to transform a community in
a church individuals and even our family
now transformational leadership is this
phenomenon out there right it has names
and it has definitions and it has
characteristics and all of that in
essence when you when an individual is
going to go through some
transformational leadership first of all
I think one needs to be very much self
aware right if you don’t know who you
are as a person then helping others or
leading others or even trying to get
into this thing of changing an
organization or an environment won’t
happen you have to be able to bring your
authentic self to that organization to
be able to have some impact now to be
able to do that that means you got to
dig do
do you dig you got to know yourself and
do some self-reflection and
introspection and when you do that if
you like me you find there’s some things
you like and there’s some things you
really don’t like right my husband I
would have that conversation where he
would tell me things he didn’t like
about me and I’d tell him things I
didn’t like about him right and some
things I said you know what sweetie I’m
gonna work on this one and this one and
this one but this one over here I’m
gonna keep it and you just got to learn
to let it and if you don’t love it just
accept it because I’m gonna be I’m
that’s me right I know myself extremely
well I know my strengths I know my
weaknesses I know my pet peeves I know
what makes me tick and I’m comfortable
with myself it took me a while to get
there
but I’m very comfortable with Virginia
Dare Hardy
not everybody is but that’s okay
I am which entails because I am then
that allows me to have a little bit more
sensitivity and emotional intelligence
and when talking to and listening to
others so from a leadership perspective
I try to be in tune to other folk and
see what’s bothering them pay attention
to their verbals but more importantly to
their nonverbals because nonverbals
speak louder than your verbals so
emotional intelligence says to pay
attention to other people
transformational leaders do some of that
now these are three books I really like
Ron Heifetz leadership without easy
answers good – great Jim Collins those
who you may have heard at least the good
to great and the other one is the power
of nice right by Linda Colville and
Robin Taylor I may have the first names
the names twitch
these ladies wrote a book forward by Jay
Leno if that tells you anything but they
wrote this book through the eyes of
women and talking about how do women use
was stereotypically considered to be a
strength of women which is being nice
being friendly being kind how do you use
that as a strength because in essence to
be a good leader to be a strong
effective leader doesn’t mean you have
to be mean and nasty right you can be
nice and still be a leader and so that’s
what that book is talking about but Ron
Heifetz says it does something and one
in his book that talks about the
difference between leader and leadership
he says that a leader is a person who
helps who gives direction and helps to
direct when the direction is known
[Music]
leadership on the other hand is being
involved being engaged when their
situation is difficult when it is
challenging and you don’t quite know
from what how you’re gonna get from
point A to point B so leaders there are
a lot of leaders but do those leaders to
have effective leadership have
transformational leadership because the
two things are extremely different now
when I came to to I’ve been in this
university for twenty four years I was
12 if you’re trying to guess how old I
am
just about to turn 13 when I started I’m
a young pup and so but in this role I’ve
been here for seven eight years give or
take so when I got in this role one of
the things that I recognized was that
what I inherited was a wounded
organization wounded because they had
been going through a lot of transitions
with leaders and with all types of
different things and people with
personalities and so they were wounded
there was not a lot of trust internally
or externally there was not a lot of
team-building getting out playing well
in the sandbox and there was not a lot
of trust or credibility so when I got
here I had to end up doing a very deep
dive dive into what was happening and
why it was happening we needed to get an
understanding and an exploration of what
people were seeing because if we were
going to transform the organization we
needed to know what people thought the
organization was at the moment where are
we right now how did we get here
and how do we move forward so what I
ended up doing was actually going around
and talking to everybody I did
internally and talking to my direct
reports and their unis I went to the
unit meetings ask questions I went to
all of the deans and all of the vice
chancellors I only had about five
questions I asked everybody the same
questions now I may have had some
follow-ups went based on their responses
but basically asked them the same five
questions and all I did was take notes I
took tons of notes I did not respond at
or like now I’m a counselor by training
so I’m used to sitting quietly I can
outwait you in silence now right right
because what we do
but what I didn’t do was make promises
because I didn’t want to make a promise
that I couldn’t keep because if I had
made a promise and didn’t keep it even
if the reason for not keeping it was
legitimate and valid I would have
already cut my legs out from underneath
because the trust wouldn’t have been
there all right so all I did was listen
now understand when you go talk to folks
and ask them questions about your area
and your organization people were free
they were they were happy to tell you
all to tell me all the bad and all the
ugly I got lots of notes if you want to
see them pulling out the good took some
effort can you tell me what is actually
working how is it working what is it
that you want if you could create this
thing what would it look like
right so we did a lot of deep diving and
trying to pull out information from
folks once I got all that information I
then brought that information back to my
team now understand I’ve got to build a
team I got to build this team because
these people don’t know me and I don’t
know them and and what they had
experienced before wasn’t always
positive so I’m coming in already behind
the eight ball so I’ve got to get them
to trust me and as Shakespeare has said
methinks thou does protest too much if
I’ve got to tell people that I’m ABCD I
think something’s wrong why because if I
have to tell you I’m nice and tell you
you can trust me then I’m not living it
so my actions my behaviors need to tell
people that and need to be genuine and
then the trust will come and so we were
able to build that team now I did it
based upon three eyes I tried to live my
life and lead by these three eyes
integrity speaks for itself right say
what you mean mean what you say do what
you say you’re gonna do it’s about the
trust being ethical being honest right
[Music]
if I don’t know I’m gonna tell you I
don’t know not afraid to admit what I
don’t know the other one piece is about
being inclusive I’m big on saying to
folks asking the question still to this
day whose voice is missing from the
table because you want to make sure you
have the right people the right voices
at the table
now that’s may sometime mean as a leader
that the person at the table is somebody
whose voice you really don’t want to
hear right
because they’re gonna push they’re gonna
ask you hard questions okay
but those are the people you want there
because if all if the only people at the
table are the people who look like you
think like you act like you come from
the same similar background as you then
it makes for very very very kind of
boring situation and you have no
creativity I never want yes people
around me I want people who are going to
push the envelope and make me think
because though that means we’re going to
get a good product or make a good
decision at the end all right and the
other piece is about intentionality be
intentional I’m very deliberate very
intentional about the decisions and the
actions that must be made I don’t
believe that decisions have to be made
right now it’s a rarity that a decision
has to be made immediately hence be
intentional about bringing the right
people to the table to have the
conversations to talk it through so that
you make a better decision now I had to
decide in that aspect of was I gonna
tear the house down was I gonna break it
all up and just start over or was that
gonna repair
I’ve opted to repair because there was a
lot of good and a very strong foundation
that we needed we could build from now
in building that as hot as Ron Heifetz
would say now excuse me Jim Collins
would say you’ve got to get the right
people on the bus right and not only get
them on the bus the right people you got
to get them sitting in the right seats
so they got to use those skill sets to
their strengths to the best to their
advantage now we tend to forget the
second part of Jim Collins quote he says
you have to get the right people on the
bus and get them in the right seats but
he also said you got to get the wrong
people off the bus right
which means that somehow those people
who don’t fit he’s got to go now I was
fortunate and that sums people we had to
let go but most people realize that they
were not fitting in with this
transformation and so those individuals
decided to take themselves off the bus
and taking people off the bus is never
easy but is necessary now this
transformational and leadership thing
the leadership in general has I think
two roles right one is being on the
balcony sometimes you have to be on the
balcony and while you’re there you’re
watching you are observing what’s going
on you’re trying to get the perspective
of everybody that’s there who’s doing
what how are they behaving trying to get
a feel for what’s happening what people
are thinking how they’re doing one of
the strengths you then as you observe
these people in the desert observe
what’s happening and then at some point
you’re gonna get on the dance floor and
when you get on this dance floor they’re
gonna be times when you dancing you’re
swaying
and sometimes you’re gonna leave this
dance all right you got it you got it
right so over the over the winter break
I wanted to learn how to salsa later on
and show you how to do it my Island and
learn how to salsa so this man was
teaching me to salsa and he was talking
to me and I was like okay I got it I got
it
obviously I didn’t have it because he
stopped and he put his hands on my hips
and yes I have hips thank you right and
he said stop trying to lead I got this
let me lead and you follow me and we’ll
be all right and I literally had to take
a breath and exhale and get my mind
right and once I did I followed and
that’s how I learned how to salsa okay
I think I got it now so this so leaders
you have to be on the balcony and
sometimes you have to be on that dance
floor and you have to lead and you have
to follow right so this transformation
thing requires you as a leader if you
were to have effective leadership it
requires that you know yourself that you
are keen are toned into other people
that you build strong teams that you
build trust build relationships that you
are paying attention that you have
integrity intentionality inclusivity and
that you check your assumptions right we
all have them we have these assumptions
about people and those assumptions can
get in our way when we interact with
people as leaders we all have biases we
all have prejudices we all know this
people may not like it but we have them
and but we need to check those
assumptions right people say to me all
the time when I see you Virginia
I don’t see a black woman and my
question to them is well who the heck do
you see
right I’m running I am let see me that
way
it’s okay these are part of my identity
it’s not the whole identity but it’s a
major part of my identity now if you
treat me differently because I am a
black woman yeah we got issues but if
you see me as such boobies cuz you need
to know who I am
so you got to know people get to know
people as you develop this leadership
concept now these are the wonderful
eight children of James and Bertha Hardy
this was at my wedding in 2009 right as
you can see in the waitress now I have
this up here because my father was the
leader of this family he was the leader
of this organization and he did run a
tight ship right but one of the two
things that he said there are many
things that resonate with me but two I
want to share with you today one she
would tell us don’t worry
until you see me worry which as a leader
is saying I got this I’m little I’m
gonna take care of us I need you to be a
part of it but I’ve got this and I’ve
got your back
and you can trust this and then the
second thing which goes along with it
was he wouldn’t he started these things
called family conferences and so no
matter where we were if there was and if
there were an issue in the family if one
of us had a problem he’d make the phone
calls and everybody come home to have
this conversation because according to
him if one of us was in trouble or not
doing well all of us was in we’re in
trouble and not doing well and the back
team concept that family and that we’re
here and we take care of each other and
we’re in tune to each other
resonates completely with this whole
notion of transformational leadership
Margaret Mead said a quote and I’m gonna
paraphrase it here but something to the
effect of people that
a small group of individuals can change
the world and in actuality that’s the
only way it can change the only way you
can have transformation and use your
leadership is to bring the team together
to inform excuse me to transform
whatever organization or situation
situation that you’re in
transformational leadership let’s lead
and transform to new horizons thank you [Applause]
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