Session 1b: The Leader’s Toolbox

Brandi Black Thacker: Hello, everybody, and welcome. We are so excited to be with you today and so grateful you took any moments out of your busy day to come and visit with us. We are thrilled that you're joining us for the "Leader's Toolbox." Before we get too far into this intermediate discussion, Dr. Richard, I want to introduce her, everybody. Are you ready? [Whispers] She loves this part, watch. The one, the only, the fabulous honey, [Laughter] Dr.

Guylaine Richard, everybody. [Applause]

Dr. Guylaine Richard: Hi, everyone. If she doesn't do that, she's not going to have her fix, so, let's give it to her. She's good. She has it, she did it. So ... I would say good morning, everyone, so happy to be with you. Good morning, good afternoon in some places. Thank you very much for joining us in this virtual world where we are going to be having a good time conversing about leadership. My name is Guylaine Richard, and I'm the training and technical assistance director, development director at the National Center on Parent, Family, Community Engagement. Very nice to be with you. Now, I'm passing the baton back to you, Brandi.

Brandi: See, did you see I get ready for her to do the same thing for me? Not even a drum roll. [Laughter] Here we go. Thanks! [Laughter] My name is Brandi Black Thacker. I'm the director of training, technical assistance, and collaboration for the National Center on Parent, Family, Community Engagement, and as I mentioned, we're so grateful to be here with you today. If you've ever been in a session with us before, you'll know that this is the way we are together, not only to show the love and reverence we have for each other, but the excitement we have anytime we get to be with you. Certainly, for all this incredible work, we've waited so long to spend time with you guys as a cohort of family service managers. So, this is a real dream realized. We want to jump right in. But before we get too deep in the content, we'd like to show you a little bit about how this platform works. Many of you may not have used this platform – it's called "On 24" – before, so we want to make sure that you're super comfortable in here and you know how to navigate. So, I'm going to give you a tiny tour.

What you have before you on the slide are the session engagement tools. These are few ways that you can engage with us through the course of this conversation and that you can navigate your own virtual environment and actually individualize it for you, specifically. So, a couple of things that we wanted you to notice; on that left-hand side, you'll see what we call a "Media Player" widget, it's where you're going to be able to see and hear us, the presenters, and it's also where you'll see videos play. Now, we don't have a video in this session, so you won't need to refer to that for that piece. But right next to that, this is always your question, "Can we get a copy of the PowerPoint?" The answer is yes. [Laughter] You absolutely will. You see the pink button that's next to the media player that says "Slides," it's the slide deck widget. If you click that at any time, you can see and download the PowerPoint slides, which is awesome. I want you to also focus your attention right next door to that, which is the "Question & Answer" widget. It's how we want you to interact with us throughout not only this session, but any of the sessions that you join for us over these two days, and it's really the way that you communicate with us. You can ask questions there, you can offer comments, you can share your own insights, however you'd like to interact. You know how we are, we're the relationship people. We want you to talk to us and think with us, so please do it there in that yellow question and answer widget button.

Also, if you want to know more about G and I or any of the speakers that you'll have the chance to spend time with over these couple of days, you'll also have our bios ready there at that purple button. So, you can click on that at any time and check us out while we have the honor to be before you today. Also, you have a resource list. This is another place that's really a cool place to be, is it because not only will you have a copy of the PowerPoint there, you're also going to have a copy of a couple of other handouts, like one of our planning forms that we call "The rat". You're going to be able to pull that down from there and use that as you please. Next door we have the "Call to Action" widget, and it allows you to navigate back and forth in the engagement hub based on where you think you're going to go next for your next session.

Now, I feel like we need a pause here. This is really important, so I'm going to say it, you know, like a meet, [Laughter] the "Knowledge Check" widget, we're going to ask you to go there at the end of our time together because at the end of each of our sessions over these two days, you're going to be asked to answer a few questions, and after each session, when you answer those few questions, that's how you get your certificate. [Laughter] At the end we're going to show you how to go to that "Knowledge Check" widget, We're going to show you what to do and what will open for you because after you finish your questions, another thing will open up so that you can download or even print your certificate of completion for your records and for CEUs. So, we'll show you what that looks like at the end. Also, if you get stuck or you need any kind of support, the ever present help button is here for you. We have a whole team of experts in the background, so if you run into any issues, you can click that yellow help button and your support will be ready to jump in as you need it.

Dr. Richard, that was a whole lot of something. I'm only going to share one other thing with our friends and colleagues online. You can actually even re-size the boxes that you see before you in your engagement space. So, if you look closely in the bottom right-hand corner of any of your windows, you'll see what's shaped like a triangle that's made of a bunch of dots. It's very scientific way to describe it, isn't it? [Laughter] You can actually click on that triangle and spread out or stretch your windows. If you're a person who likes to see things a little bigger, you can actually create what that looks like for you in your own virtual space. You can test that out now, and you can resize, rearrange, totally up to you what you want your space to look like. So, hopefully, those tips, tricks, and, you know, strategies are helpful as you get acclimated to this platform, and then as we go forward together in our discussion today, and Dr. Richard, to do that, we have a question for the group. What do leaders do in times of change? I know you probably want to extend and expand this a little bit. While you do that, Dr. Richard, I'm going to check the chat and see what stream of consciousness pops up for folks. But what do leaders do in times of change?

Dr. Richard: I really like to pose this question to both of us, and we're going to try to do, as our friends are, like probably, you know, fiercely, like, you know, working this in the chat, and we're going to look in a quick minute of what they have been putting to us. But I want to say, what do leaders do in times of change? What do you think, as a leader, you would do if something was changing in your environment? Changing, like, for example, now we know that we're going through a lot of change. Look at this, we in a virtual world and you know how I am not too happy, believe it or not, because I can't be close to you to kind of give you that little kick that I usually give to you, but I see you.

Brandi: Is a kiss, right? Hug and kiss? [Laughter] Dr. Richard: Kiss, not kick, kiss. I misspoke. Sorry. Brandi: I thought so. [Laughter]

Dr. Richard: In time of change, I think, you know, as a leader, I would love to know what that change is because some changes may be opportunities. So, change don't only bring challenges. As a leader, I would look at opportunities because there may be a lot embedded in that change that we see. What do you think?

Brandi: Well, you know, Dr. Richard, it's no surprise that we have really, incredibly connected, kind folks in our chat, and one of the things that I'm hearing from a few of our friends over there is, in times of change, leaders go back to their vision. I'm hearing things like they listen. One of the leanings that I had also was that ... You know, I'm going right back [Laughter] to the Head Start director's chair and the thing that I hear replayed in my mind was something that we set them up program a lot, which was the only thing that's constant is change. So, in my mind, like the thing that replays is, "OK. Situation normal. We're adaptable. We're flexible. We're fluid," and we inspire in those moments when we can keep ourselves in a space of sereneness, the honesty, the calmness, the transparency. [Laughter] It feels very much like this balance, right? I mean, that's kind of what I hear playing over in my mind. I don't know if that's what where you're taking this, but what do you think?

Dr. Richard: Yeah, I like this, really, Brandi, when you're telling because that makes me feel like, when you say the leaders – the leader go to the vision, that brings me, "OK, does that change anything that you want to do as a leader? Do you see something that can enhance it, or that you may want again? Can you change the change?" I'm feeling like, "Ooh, I like that." I like that. You're inspiring me.

Brandi: [Laughter] T-shirt. How do you say it, [Laughter] is there change in the chat? Say it again.

Dr. Richard: I said, as a leader, I would look for, is there a change in my vision, change that I need to bring, a change in the change. So, you're going to think that I said you inspired me, now I inspired you too. OK, girl? Don't go and make that T-shirt and make money without me. So, let's do it.

Brandi: You know we're partners in crime. I love this though, is there change in my change? It's really this reflective moment. Guys, I really feel like we wrote the book on this. Head Start is all about continuous quality improvement, especially when you're at this managerial level. It just is. It is how we are. We're ever present in our enhancements, in our thoughts, in our processes, not only continue connecting with each other in a really deep and meaningful way in service of the kids and families we have the honor to serve, but it just is that we are striving for better and better things for each other and for the littlest ones, yeah? So, you know, G, I love this kind of conversation because I think it's confirming one, because it is so organic, and I guess natural to who we really are, and what we've done over five decades in Head Start. To me, it's inspiring too, right? There's all kinds of different ways that we can lean in together that might look different today than even yesterday, and I know you're going to take us there.

Before we get there, I also know that we have a few learning objectives that we have proposed, it's for everybody. If you know anything about how we do sessions, [Laughter] you know that we built these before we got the chance to meet you. We truly will try to follow your lead. We do want you to ask us questions all throughout this time together. Remember, that yellow Q&A widget that you'll find in your engagement hub. Please communicate with us there. We will talk back to you because we're the relationship people, [Laughter] so we like to do that. But here's what we set forth: No matter in which conversation that we are having, we are going to start it with the PFCE Framework. So many of you have taught us over time about how you've really learned to use it in ways that sing for you in your program. Ways that you've mapped to it, and ways that you're using it for those continuous improvement pieces that we've already begun to think about. I love this because it really does help you, I guess, the words pathway and journey were coming at the same time, [Laughter] that were like ways that you can map out where you're going and where you want to go. So, we're going to talk about that and how that specifically applies to you as a change agent. We're going think about – and this is straight from the brain of Dr. Richard; you're in for a super treat today – because we're going to think about a system approach to leadership and what that looks and sounds like. I think you'll find elements of familiarity there.

Certainly, we can't leave each other without sharing some resources and some ways to extend and expand your learning for any of the bits that you get excited about and want to know and do more with. So, there's your case for that. Here it is. If I was saying it to anybody, "You know it, you love it, you live it, you have it memorized," [Laughter] the PFCE Framework. Now, as we've gotten on in years with this framework, I can't believe that G, it's almost a decade, all of this framework by now. It really is. It's almost 10 years old. We made an enhancement a couple years ago, but one of the things that I love about this, as we've learned to think and talk about it, almost as if it's a formula, how we call like "If, this, then that." The way that we have really started to showcase this theory of change, which is what the framework is, it truly not only has stood the test of time in research, and we love research, but we also really revere the real, and that's what we do in Head Start, is the real. What we've learned is if you stand in those arrows, the positive goal-oriented relationships and equity, inclusiveness, cultural and linguistic responsiveness views both of those arrows in a meaningful way, and you have the already required tab, which is strong systems in the yellow column, high quality comprehensive services in the pink column, then families and children grow, blue column and purple column, respectively. G, can I get a "woof-woof?" [Laughter] She did it. I can't believe it.

So, you see how it works. If this, then that. If you use the arrows, you say that what we're required to do is systems and services, families and children grow. It really does become a roadmap. As managers, what we've been hearing from you and all the levels of sophistication that you continue to bring into this dialogue, is that you're using it to really think about your five-year project periods, think about your program goals. You're using it to think about professional development and not only for the folks that you might supervise and the family service experts, but because family engagement is everybody's business, you're extending the message out so that each of us have the benefit of those relationship-based practices. So, those are a few tidbits that we've learned from you over time, and we're really impressed by those and are excited that you're putting it to work for you.

Dr. Richard, before I turn it over to you, because I'm so excited to get to share in your wisdom today, I want to offer just a few more key messages. These are just, beginning with the end in mind, kind of sentiments, and you can see what's on your screen here. I was teasing with a group earlier and saying I really believe if I ever got to meet Dr. Brene Brown, we would be besties. [Laughter] We would. I just have a feeling that we will be dear friends. The first bullet that you see on the screen belongs to her, and you can see what it says, "A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes." It's not just about the micro, it's about macro too. People and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential. That's who we are. We are human developers and not only the littlest ones among us, the families, each other, our communities. That's our job. So, I love this as it relates to the leadership. You can see a few other pieces here that I know Dr. Richard is going to take us through in a bit more detail. Vision and mission pave the way. Change doesn't happen, it's created. Change starts with a C. That's a little tease for you till she takes us there to unpack that. Actions speak louder than words. Boy, am I feeling that this week? That's the [Laughter], and then, last but not least actions leading to change impact, and this is that notion, right, G? From like the micro to macro, system, services, and collaboration. It's a ripple [Inaudible], really, and we can influence that. Without further ado, I think we're going to turn it over to the one, I won't do it again. But here she is, Dr. Richard, everybody.

Dr. Richard: Thank you, Brandi. Thank you. Actually, I wanted to take a quick minute staying there for a second because we have some of those teasers for you because we wanted you to be bringing your mind back to alert the being a change agent. The fact that we say when we asked that question and Brandi said, "When the change happens as a leader," she will bring her mind back to the vision. Therefore, as a leader, you always need to be looking at your vision and reconsidering your mission, so in order for you to continue the journey even when change happens. I said here, "Change doesn't happen, it's created" because that gives us the opportunity to look at change as something that is very actionable. You can actually create the change you want. You don't have to be overwhelmed by the change you see; you can really do it. When we are here, change starts with a C, I want you to bring your mind to the system approach because the first system that gave us as leaders to really communicate that vision, to do that mission is the system of communication. I want as a leader for us to be really intentional when we have something that we're going to change, or such a change happen, we communicate because communication is one of the best tools that a leader has to let others know where he or she is going and what needs to happen. So, when we are looking at actions speak louder than words, remember, you're not there to talk only but you really need to put action into play.

One of the thing that I want to make another C, another system in place, there's some collaboration. As a leader when time of change or anytime, you should never do it alone. You need to look at community partners, another C. You see how I'm doing it. I'm giving you all the Cs that are necessary for you to see where you're going. We're going to go now and talk about leadership. I know some of you may be familiar with that. Some of you have seen it in another session, but I want to just define leadership in those term to you. Leadership is action. Again, action, not position. Whenever there is change, there is a change in, there is something that moves. Action is also a moving element. If you just stay idle or you don't do something, that means you will never have the change you perceive. So, leadership is action, not a position. As a leader, I don't see where my hierarchical title, my title or what do I represent. We all leaders in an organization. So, we all, because we all can take action for change to happen.

I wanted to also take time, Brandi, to look at those definition that, you know, of two of our leaders, two people that we know, Maya Angelou and Dr. Martin Luther King. But I'm going to start with Dr. Mar ... Maya Angelou said, "I believe ... " listen to this, "I believe the single most important thing beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare." So, as a leader, there is something that comes to you where you dare. To do what? You dare to dare, meaning, like you dare to make the change that you see, that you want to have, that you want to create. I also would lean on what Dr. Martin Luther King said to us to give us that pace where you can, "I cannot do great thing ..." listen up, "If I cannot do great thing, I can do small thing in a great way." As leaders, we don't have to look at the bigger thing, and that's why leadership is an action, is not a position. Because every one of us have the opportunity to create something, as small as it is, as long as it's going to enhance the life of the children and the families we serve, we have done great thing and the staff that we have also. We need to be thinking about that not going after the great thing, but after the small thing that can be done in great ways. Would you add anything, Brandi? Convince? Hoop, hoop. All right. I'm gone.

Brandi: [Laughter] I like your, "Hoop, hoop." I would support that. [Laughter]

Dr. Richard: All right. So, we wanted to go very quickly about some foundational concept where we see then if this is action so everybody can act, so it's everyone business. Leadership is a relationship. A relationship with someone, a relationship with your vision even, a relationship of what I see this well-being. Also, leadership comes with development of self. You need to develop yourself to become a leader because all of us are born leaders. There is that seed in us, but we need to nurture it. This is why they said you can also learn to be a leader. We're not necessarily born a leader only; we can be learning to become a leader. That's self-development. If you want to be a leader, you have to also be a learner because the best leaders are the best learners. Leadership development is an ongoing process, meaning that there may be a starting point where you started, but you need to continue that journey without worrying about how, in my own self-development, am I going to change as a leader. Is it ongoing process, meaning there is more to do, there is more that can come throughout that journey? Be open to make mistake, be open to be you in the way that you want to be, the person that you are creating it to be. Leadership development takes deliberate practice. That's what I'm saying that you can learn to be a leader because if you practice it – practice those skills, you're going to get there.

It's an aspiration. What I like the most is leadership is a choice that we make. It's like we can make the choice to become the best leaders that we want to be and is up to us. Leadership finally makes a difference. If you're a leader, there needs to be differences that you bring in your own life, in staff life, in your program, and also the community you're serving.

Anything, you would add there, Brandi? Are you without words? I can't believe this. Therefore, I'm going to take the opportunity then to look at characteristic of some admired leaders. You see, she's smiling because I didn't give her time to really respond. I'm going to give it to you, my friend. Don't worry, I'll get there. But I wanted to share with you a study that was done about admired leaders, and they have several characteristic. But the thing that we want to do with you is really to look at those four characteristic that people admire leaders the most for. So, the first one is honesty. A leader who is honest is able to show not only self-vulnerability and also be open to learn. Now, therefore, you see 89 percent of people when they ask them what are the characteristic of a leader, they said honesty was important. The leader who can say, "I don't know and I want to learn. I want to ask more question, I am open to learning," is one that is honest. And when something happen, and Brandi is ... I know she usually look at the leader as not as a term but as a person, we are human. The next characteristic is forward-looking.

Forward-looking means, remember that vision, that mission that you have, you would need to be able to look beyond certain thing and look at what is going to happen, anticipate some change that may happen too. The 69 percent of people said a leader who is inspiring others.

Inspiring others, making sure that others see the value in them and grow with, a leader who is a nurturer. When I look at inspiring, I look at a nurturer. We all have that opportunity to do so.

Finally, in a 68 percent belt, a leader needed to be competent. When I hear the word competent in my mind, what comes to my mind is not only the leader who has the knowledge or if she or he doesn't have all the knowledge, go and look for it, to go themselves with the knowledge that they have. The leader with skills that has some skills, and the leader really practice what they are saying that they are doing best, like practice what you preach, for example, we heard that before. But a leader who can demonstrate that, "I'm not doing it just for the show, but I truly believe in it, and I'm doing it. Look at me, it's genuine, so I'm going to go there." Anything you would add, Brandi?

Brandi: G, it just makes me think about where Dr. Bergeron and Kiersten kicked us off with their opening remarks and how we each come into this space as a leader, like you said. It touches what I truly believe too, that you alluded to, which is it's the human in of each of us. Being able to say that you made a mistake if you did, being able to be transparent in saying, "But I'm committed to making it right," or doing better or thinking together to puzzle it out. I just think it gives us the permission to really stand in who we are but be honest about that and to grow together. Who doesn't want to do that? It's community building really.

Dr. Richard: Yes. And actually, what I want you to do now that you know that you are preparing yourself as a leader, but the leader needs to also take a system approach to leadership. That's what we're going to unpeel together because your ability as a leader to see the system as a whole rather than simply its parts, because as family managers, we are there to support an area in our program. We cannot just say, "This is my area, I'm going to do this." I need to look at the full program, fostering deep, shared reflection to challenge assumption and build trust. A leader who is not trusted is a leader that cannot really implement change because people don't believe in what you're going to do. Shifting the collective focus from reactive problem-solving to one of co-creating the future. It's not always like we do what we need to do, no. It's like, is there other opportunity? That's what I was telling you when I was thinking co-creating; co- creating the future, meaning the leader cannot work alone, the leader has to look at who they have. That's why I am going to take this approach with you. I hope you see that as a way for you to first approach this way of a leader to look at leadership as a way for engaging in a process.

The first part of this process then will become the assessment. Whenever something happen, whether this is a topic or situation that you have, first as a leader, we need to assess. What do we assess? You need to assess yourself first. You need to assess what are my capacity, my abilities to support this change? Assess the people that are around me, the staff that I am leading. Can they do this with me? Assess of your staff, assess yourself.

Now, the families that are working with you, access ... The other one you need to access when I'm talking about the families, I'm looking at my program in its entirety. Assess the capacity for those families to support you, assess your staff, assess yourself. Now, you need to also assess your community partners because that process of assessment, that system of assessment is going to help you see more opportunities and [Inaudible] is going to be helping into make this happen. The second place then would be after I gather information, I see what I want to do, I plan. This is the piece that you need to do. If you fail to plan, you will plan to fail. This is guaranteed because the planning needs to not be done then by yourself only. It needs to include all those people that we've just talked about. It need to include you, it needs to include the staff, it needs to include other people in the families. It needs to also include the community partners. Once you know what want – because what the planning help you do is to know what you want – once you know what you want, you apply it, you put it into practice.

Therefore, when you're able to do that, you are going to be having some buy-in in what was done, and you're going to apply it. But in the process of applying this, another system that is important is the system of continuous improvement which I call adjust. You need to adjust. If there is a change, if there is an enhancement that needs to be made, you need to take that, otherwise you're not going to be able to create that change that you wanted because you didn't take time to really re-evaluate.

Therefore, after re-evaluation, you adjust, and you go back. So, assess, plan, apply, adjust. So, I want to keep you with this. I know probably a lot of us have seen this frame in another way, but I want you to understand, "I need to add information. I need to really see what others need in my program, what I need to assess, my needs and my strength. I need to plan, I need to know what I want, I need to do what I said I wanted to do. If in the process, I need to make changes, I need to be comfortable and honest enough to do it." Any question, my friend? Are you OK?

Brandi: Well, I'm holding on, I'm tracking, I'm following, and I'm impressed. I love this, G, because I'm even thinking about current day and time and the fluidity that we've needed as you guys have, what we called, "Return Ready" in whatever way that looks like for you right now. It could be in person, it could be virtual, it could be hybrid, it depends on your locality. I just think about, G, the structure that this offers, but the fluidity also that it offers so that you can think meaningfully about where you are as a leader with your team, in your community, with the families that you serve and their littlest ones. It really does support everything that we know about systems development and integration. All the things that we know, even with our colleagues at program management and fiscal operations or management systems wheel, and how that lives really in the yellow column of our PFCE framework. It just brings it all together in a way that allows the flexibilities that are necessary to do the work that we do. But it gives us some guardrails at the same time to really drive in a way that is meaningful.

Dr. Richard: This is just a gift for you to be like, " Did I say, did I plan, did I apply, and have I done it with all the players that I needed to be with me in that change that I see?" Remember, system communication: you cannot do this, all of this during all that time you're communicating. So, Brandi, I would like to just go ahead and take a minute to just remind ourselves as leaders what we are doing. Because as manager, we do a lot of tasks, but as leaders also we are there to guide. One of the things that as leaders we need to be, we need to be not only setting the vision, but pave the way, and often we need to keep the words of Waldo Emerson in mind. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Instead, go where no path exists and leave a trail." I love this because remember this is not a big thing, this is the thing that you're going to be like people can take. Also remember the word of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, "Fight for the thing you care about but do it in a way that will lead others to join you." Remember, if there are no followers, there is no leader, so fight but do it in a way that others will want to join you in the fight that you're making. All right Brandi, I think you know I am going to pause it but turn to you to talk about where we found all those great ideas, those great things that we shared.

Brandi: Well, I can't follow up on those quotes. I mean, I can't leave Ruth Bader Ginsburg's last one about fight for the things you care about the do it in a way that will lead others to join you. It's like what can you do today? And G, we're going to reflect some reflection questions. But as a leader, as a manager in your program, how are the ways that you're going to interact today that inspires folks to follow, that inspires folks to join alongside you. It's what we do with our families. There's a reverence there. I care for who each of us are in the way that we want to be together, that's what we're hoping. But G, let's just be real, to confirm because it just feels so organic to how we do what we do already. But also, to inspire, especially in terms where we've had a lot of stress. Sometimes it's super helpful to get grounded back in that place of "we got this," and let me say that we do got this. We have, we have. Let me get my Appalachian reeled in G, hold on. Let me get it back. [Laughter] Well, as Dr. Richard promised, we want to leave you with a couple of resources. Here is one that we have really just enjoyed getting into. I'm admitted to group a little earlier, I'm a huge nerd with this stuff, so totally love it, but Dr. Brene Brown does have a newer book out called "Dare to Lead." If you haven't discovered it yet, you've got to check it out. One of the things that's really awesome here is that she has a whole hub. She has a whole place on her website where you can go and download pacing guides. If this is a book that you'd like to study with your organization, she has assessments, there are clip arts, there are all things that you can do to think together as a team with that in mind. Feel free to go check that out. You also have the reflection plane forum, but if you do want to take any of the ideas that Dr. Richard offered with you today to extend and expand those, you have a form with some reflection questions to do that, and we'll be looking at one of those here in a bit.

But before we leave each other, I want to make sure you have this information. We're going to pause for just a little bit of time, so you have the moments to actually do your knowledge check and download your certificate. I want to give you some specific instructions, so you'll feel comfortable. Clicking in on the slide, you're going to see the "Knowledge Check" widget, and it's the one with the little check and the x. That's the teal one you see on the left-hand side of your screen. Here's what we'd like you to do. Go to those engagement tools at the bottom of your screen and go ahead and click on that "Knowledge Check" icon. Now, what's going to happen is you're going to see some test questions pop up there. What we'd like you to do is based on this dialogue, is to answer those. When you have answered those, you're going to get a whole other pop-up box that says, "Congratulations! You can now access your certificate of completion." When you get that pop-up message, it's going to allow you to download that certificate and/or print it. We recommend that you download it onto your own computer so that you'll have it for the future in case you need to e-mail it to anybody, or in case you need it in an eCopy, and you can only do that while we're here together today. Go ahead when you get your pop-up screen that says you've completed the questions, download that onto your machine and you can still print it as well. But we want to make sure that you do have a copy of it for your records because we know how important that is to you guys.

So, what we're going to do is give a little bit of space for you to actually complete those questions so that you can do it while you're here. But as you do that, we're also going to just put up a reflection question for you. Dr. Richard, I don't know if you want to give any extra context around this as folks are finishing their test questions, but I want to pause here just in case you would like to add some additional context.

Dr. Richard: Thank you, Brandi, and as our friends are taking their tests and downloading their certificate, we get an opportunity to just reflect a little bit more. Remember, the thing that I said, failing to plan is planning to fail. As a leader, the question for you now, what systems can you put in place that support achieving success? Not only success, remember, for yourself as a leader, but success for the people you're leading, for others in your program, for the families you are supporting and the children that you're serving, but also the community partners.

When you look at system that I can put in place, I would love for you to be making sure that you put all those bodies in the equation: yourself, your staff, other people in your program, the families you serve, the children that you're looking at, and the community partners. So, as we do that, we would love for you to be thinking this question and do some more thinking with others in your program.

With that, I think Brandi it's time for us to say, really, like as they do that, we are getting ready to transition pretty soon to another session, and we hope that our friends would follow us and come and join us again and join other presenters. We are there for you, and as we said, we have given you a lot of possibilities to keep the dialogue. So, thank you very much for this opportunity to talk about system approach to leadership. Thank you.

Close