View From the Hill

When asked about his daughter, actor John Malkovich replied, “ I only have two rules for my newly born daughter: she will dress well and never have sex.”  Sounds good to me.

I personally would also like to confess to another rule or perhaps it might be better described as an aspiration.  Deep down, I’ve always hoped that one of my three daughters would follow in my footsteps and take up track.  While I may not have been the world’s greatest sprinter, I did have wheels and I like to think I’ve passed on some of those genes to my offspring.

Consequently, I could hardly contain my glee when at the age of my twelve my daughter Kassi decided she wanted to be a hurdler. As a former high school and college track coach, I was even more pleased when she asked me to help her.  Apparently Kassi was having trouble with her pacing and couldn’t seem to get past the third hurdle. 

So, off we went to the local track. Just as were pulling the car up, Kassi spotted a number of boys on the track. Suddenly her total demeanor changed and she snapped, “No Dad, I don’t want to go out there!”

Trying to be understanding, I asked her, “What are you intimidated by? Are you afraid they’ll pick on you? Make fun of you?”

She replied, “I know, I know…I just don’t want to.”

At that point, beginning to lose my patience, I dug in my heels, and said, “Well we’re not leaving until you get out of the car and at least try this!”

By then she was really mad and said “You don’t understand Dad, and besides, you’re not taking into account my feelings!”

Agreeing she had a point I backed down and had actually started to drive away before I turned to her and said, “No! I will not let you be intimidated by those boys, we’ll work through this together!”

Now very upset, she turned to me and spit out through clenched teeth, “I hate you”.

But…. she did get out of the car.

After that Kodak moment, I proceeded as if nothing had happened and began to show her fence drills, skipping drills, the basic motions, and rhythm drills. At this point, she lightened up somewhat even managing to ignore the boys who were by now running around the track.

Although she appeared to be gaining more confidence, I could still sense her fear.

Rather than risk having her fail, I decided to turn the hurdles upside down and had her simply concentrate on running the full set of hurdles a number of times. Here she met with success.

Seeing we were making progress, I suggested we put the hurdles up and then try the real thing.  Kassi blasted out, hit the first two hurdles, got to the third, and was stopped in her tracks by fear. She turned back and tried again, and again, and then finally made it through the full set. As she made it across the final hurdle, a huge grin split across her face as the others on the track, having watched her struggle and ultimately succeed, broke into spontaneous applause.

Kassi walked over to me, grinned and said, “I don’t hate you”.

I said, “I know”, gave her a hug, and proceeded to tell her how proud I was that she had tackled the course despite being afraid of banged up shins and boys who would make fun of her.
Thinking about it afterward, I thought that her experience on that track was much like life. How often do we compromise our own values, dreams, and hopes because we’re afraid?  How often do we stop pursuing our desires because its easier to go along with others?  Life really is just a series of hurdles that are often made more challenging because of the push and pull of desire and fear. While in Kassi’s case it was the fear of falling down and the fear of the boys, for others it may be other more or less complex issues.  But, just as it was in Kassi’s case, it really is just about having a vision for what you want to do and pursuing it, one step at a time…hurdle by hurdle, banged shins and all.  Unbeknownst to me, Kassi’s coach had also suggested that if she couldn’t get past her fear, perhaps she needed to think about another activity. That made her victory even more impressive.

Was it worth the struggle? 

Judging by Kassi’s beautiful smile and the light in her eyes, oh yea it was definitely worth the struggle! 

Now, unlike ever before, grassroots leaders—people like you and I—have the power to make an impact. Thanks to the internet and the growing popularity of social media, the world is smaller than it’s ever been and some of the procedures we’ve known and trusted no longer apply. People’s attitudes towards leadership are shifting.

Change is coming, but it’s not trickling down from shadowy figures in an ivory tower. It’s coming from the bottom up, from community leaders who recognize they have the power to change the world. Regular people like you and I are becoming ACE leaders—Active, Creative and Engaged. ACE leaders are those who have the vision, energy and skill to build healthy communities. These are the six competencies that a leader today—an ACE leader—needs to demonstrate.

ACE leaders are agents of change. You have a great message, but if nobody hears it, nothing will happen. Finding likeminded people and building relationships is the key to progress.

ACE leaders have a commitment to continuous improvement. Sure, the status quo works, but is there a better way? Is there a way that’s better for the environment and our communities? ACE leaders constantly reevaluate their methods.

ACE leaders apply big picture thinking. Just as every part inside a computer has an important function, so does each member, organization and business within a community. All need to live up to their potential and work collectively to address the broader community.

ACE leaders are catalysts for citizen responsibility. They inspire others to take ownership of their community.

ACE leaders are quality of life advocates. They understand that recreation, parks, sports, arts, culture and heritage are essential elements of a community.

ACE leaders are community development planners. They don’t say all the right words and then wait for others to do the grunt work. ACE leaders take initiative and work with others to proactively apply innovative solutions.

Leadership today is no longer about a title—it’s about the capacity to get things done by engaging others. The days of the individual on the white horse swooping into town to save the day are gone.

Today, it takes someone with the ability to build partnerships and build consensus. It takes someone with the ability to inspire, to move others towards a shared goal. It takes an ACE leader.

Are you an ACE leader? Find out with our Leadership Self-Assessment quiz at http://acecommunities.ca/downloads/.

My football coach changed my life.

And, even though it’s been years since he passed away, his impact is still being felt even in places where he’s never set foot.Although it sounds pretty dramatic, I know if Coach Bill Bell hadn’t seen my potential, I wouldn’t have made it into adulthood. My adoptive mother died when I was five, my adoptive father left when I was 12. I was a victim of physical and sexual abuse — a “special ed” kid with a string of dismal grades. I was destined for failure.

And then I met Coach Bill Bell. From grade 7 to grade 12, he was there for me. Because he believed in me, I started to believe in myself. Ultimately I even started to believe I had gifts I could pass on to others.

Recently my travels brought me to Alberta. City staff in Leduc connected me and our Let Them Be Kids program to 10 moms who wanted a playground but didn’t have the finances or the connections. Since Feb 1, those 10 moms have raised $64,000 and Leduc will get their new playground on June 6. You might say a new playground is no big deal. But for the kid who needs a safe place to play, for that senior with a grandkid, it is a big deal.

And of all of this because of whom? You could say it’s because of 10 moms. You could give the credit to Ian Hill or his organization. Or you could say it was Bill Bell. Coach Bell’s belief changed the outcome of my entire life. In Leduc, 10 moms have altered the outcome of the lives of local kids and families.

What about you? Is there a child or a spouse who needs your faith? A neighbour who needs a kind word or someone who needs a helping hand?

We may not be able to change the world, but we can tend to our little corner of it. It is the collective impact of all these seemingly random acts of hope that will win the day.
That’s what Bill Bell did—his corner of the world was Ian Hill. He drew a line in the sand and said, “I’ll make my mark on this man’s life.”

I believe that every community is one idea, one voice, one action—one person—away from being better tomorrow than it was yesterday.

You have the power to be that one person.

Recruiting and retaining volunteer’s is challenging in today’s day and age, and volunteers are more sophisticated then they have ever been. When we are asking to people to give us their time, talents and treasure we are asking a great deal.

In this month broadcast we discussed where volunteering has come from and the nature of it today. Let em know your thoughts, have people changed, has what they are looking for changed, and have we in the volunteer driven sector kept up with these changing times?

Let know your thoughts…

An Agent of Change has the ability to build trusting relationship, to be a catalyst for attitudinal shift and to exert influence through that trust they have built. What did you think of the relational marketing model I was advocating? Could it work for you or was it a bunch of nonsense? Either way let talk about it.

Also our survey function is not working and we will have it up shortly, till then email me your thoughts on future web cast topics…so here is the question; “What do you want to learn more about and what information, if you gained greater insight into, would make a significant difference in you daily efforts?”

Here are some suggestions so far:

o Recruiting and retain volunteers
o Fund development and fundraising
o Social Marketing
o Staff Motivation

Email me and let me know .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

You may have seen the new PSA’s that have been running over the past few days. They are the beginning of many that will highlight the values, communities and inspirational stories that are ACE. So tell me what do you think so far?

Thanks for joining our discussion…Agents of Change have the ability to see attitudinal barriers and overcome them.

What did you think of the ideas, what are your thoughts? Give us your opinions and we will talk about it for the next 30 days.

Thank you for all your hard work that you do in building better communities and a better world,

Look forward to talking-Ian

ACE Community leaders and coaches did a fabulous job of pulling together the ACE Launch Tour with Ian Hill to ignite and generate enthusiasm.

In LEDUC COUNTY this article here shows a map done by young students to reflect their ideas for developing an ACE Community. At the Leduc meeting students also made placemats with drawings to show how ACE could impact their community.

Following the SANGUDO launch, 40 people came to help set up for their Christmas Blitz…more help than before. They were looking for leadership and wanted to be part of the team.

Over 50 people signed up for the next ACE Community Gathering, 12 people joined the Economic Development group, 28 people want to be involved with the sports ground project, and 21 people said they would help with whatever was needed.

Mayor Susan Samson in SYLVAN LAKE thanked Hill and said, “I’m inspired beyond belief to think we’re all going to do this together.”

A comment from ECKVILLE…“In today’s busy world it is often hard to find the time to collectively focus on our communities - but it is so important. We have lots of enthusiastic community members. Our committee is really looking forward to ACE evolving in Eckville”.

And, a powerful testimonial from a participant in the OKOTOKS session, “Ian: know that you made something of a difference for this one person. And that’s a start. And this thought too: “I may be old but I haven’t lost my capacity to learn from others”.

Another ACE Partner Community Leader shared the following, “The opportunity, support from ACE, and the buy-in from the community has made this a great experience for us! I really feel like it is gaining momentum and it’s exciting to see, I think the timing was right… our community is ready for change and the events we have done are bringing out different types of people every time and people we don’t ordinarily see out… it’s great!! Thanks for enabling and supporting us to be able to do this!!”

Ian’s message about RELATIONSHIP MARKETING was used by the majority of communities and many learned that while it may take time to talk one-to-one to personally invite their participation, people respond. Posters don’t work, phone calls do!