| | October 1, 2018 ♦ Issue 7 |
| How Having a Coach Can Help Your Career People may assume executives know everything they need to for their jobs, said Ann Roda, vice president of mission and spiritual care for Adventist HealthCare. She knows that’s not the truth.
About eight months ago, she realized she needed help in adjusting to the position she’d held for a little more than a year. Roda recognized her communication style as a pastor didn’t translate into the corporate setting. There was a steep learning curve to execute mission integration, which had to happen in a business that already had its own goals and which encompassed a multitude of departments. The search for knowledge, which she had been doing after her 12- to 14-hour workdays, created a deficit of downtime to allow for processing of ideas and preparation for the steady stream of meetings she faced. |
| The discomfort "keeps you constantly seeking. It keeps you asking questions."
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| | To help, she decided to get an executive coach. The coach helped her with the transition and made her realize if she achieved the comfort level she wanted in her role as vice president, it might not be a positive thing. The discomfort “keeps you constantly seeking,” Roda said. “It keeps you asking questions.” This coach also re-evaluated her schedule, helping her accept that research was a part of her job not an extracurricular activity. She learned to schedule time during her workday to allow for reading, whether it is meeting agendas and minutes, the Harvard Business Review or books that expand her understanding of her mission and the world. This “white space” gives her time to be intentional and prepare to articulate her ideas in meetings that last an hour because everyone has 30 seconds to leave that meeting and walk into another meeting, Roda said. “I make sure I take time to think, reflect, observe, plan,” she said. “Words need to be articulate and to the point.” |
| | — Michele Joseph, managing editor, AWL newsletter; Photo by Brian Patrick Tagalog for the Columbia Union Conference, Visitor magazine |
| | Meditations
"Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life." — Proverbs 19:20, New Living Translation |
| | | AWL's Prayer Circle This week we are praying for: |
| | Vinita Sauder President Union College |
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| | | Coming up News about developments in the growing Adventist Women Leaders organization. |
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| | AWL is a community of women affirming, encouraging, and celebrating God's goodness to those He has called to lead. |
| AWL Organizers: Debra Brill, Tamyra Horst, Ann Roda, Celeste Ryan Blyden Newsletter: Michele Joseph, managing editor, Carla Conway, graphic designer |
| Email us! We want to hear from you. |
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