Posted by Kevin Sawyer in Question for the Candidates - Regrets and Character

Posted by Rear Admiral Sarah Hemenway (Presidential Candidate) in Question for the Candidates - Regrets and Character

Posted by Kevin Sawyer in Question for the Candidates - Regrets and Character
Hello!

I don’t normally participate in elections, but there’s one set of questions I’d like to pose to each of the nominees. These are questions stemming from my own history, ones I ask of myself when reflecting on my own leadership roles inside the club and out, factors I think are important to look for in leaders and politicians. These aren’t being asked because of any histories of those running. Many of these center on emotion, please note that I’m not trying to infer emotions are bad or even that losing ones temper is, I am not looking for “I am 100% impartial, without emotion in leadership, objective” answers unless that’s how you genuinely feel. I’m highly emotional myself and am interested in hearing what candidates know of themselves in these regards.

• Are there any decisions you’ve made in a leadership position in the club, either on a ship or in a government position, which you regret making, or otherwise would have done differently in the time since then? If so, could you talk about the biggest such decision, in abstract if appropriate, and what that decision may have looked like if it were made with your leadership style today? If not, do you feel your leadership strategies have changed at all in recent years, or have they kept steady?

The biggest decision I can think of here is running for my third term as President. After two fairly successful, but stressful terms, I was burned out on STF government, but after asking around, it became clear that there was not another candidate available who could handle the WeBBspace transition, so I allowed myself to be talked into running for a third term. We won the election and I made it through the WeBBspace transition, but the stress of that, a long time as President, and some offline life things resulted in me stepping down halfway through my term. If I had made that decision now, I would have held to my boundary that I was finished being President, but that I was willing to support someone else as Vice President if necessary.

• Have you ever been in a leadership position ‘over’ a friend whose actions you need to question, investigate, and perhaps reprimand? If so, do you think you acted in an impartial manner? If impartial, did you take any extra steps or talk to anybody else to ensure fairness given that friendship, or did you attempt to follow the same process as if they were not a friend? If you have not been in that position, or don’t think you were impartial, may I ask how you can assure us you can deal with the responsibilities of club leadership which may put you in that kind of position?

Yes, when I was Internet Director, a member of my staff (also a close friend) chose to respond to a slightly rude email from the President in a completely inflammatory manner. Impartiality is extremely important to me and I do feel that I acted in a such a manner investigating this situation. If anything, I might have over-documented and over-explained the situation to make sure that people followed my thought process and saw how I had worked through resolving the problem.

• Have you ever lost your temper in the club, or otherwise directed anger and ill sentiment towards another member or members in a way that wasn’t warranted? If so, could you tell us about the circumstances in abstract and what happened after, such as whether you made any apology for it and whether there have been any repeats, or any other information to contextualize it? If you haven’t lost your cool in the club before, do you know what your threshold is for reaching the point of outburst when it comes to being online with each other? How do emotions have an effect on your leadership, if any?

Thank you,
Kevin

I think that, in general, emotions don’t have a big effect on my leadership, although that can be a negative as well as a positive. Particularly since we’re in an online, text-based community, it’s very easy for my emotions to get hurt and for no one to know about it because it’s just not something that comes through in my response. That also means that the positive emotions, like passion and support and care for other members, doesn’t necessarily come through as much as I would like either.

As to the first part of your question, since I returned to STF, there was a member that I butted heads with several times, to the point of immense frustration on both sides. There were apologies issued on both sides, but I think what finally helped was to not necessarily correct the actions, but to take the time to understand that this member didn’t know me and I didn’t know him and we were both potentially making assumptions about the other one that were inaccurate. We’ve spent a lot more time since then talking through motivations for things and there have been several “ah ha!” moments on at least my side where there were things that I definitely didn’t know/anticipate affecting a situation that otherwise could have been really explosive.

Sarah

Thank you!

Kevin

You’re welcome! I’m sorely disappointed to not have my mental health questioned for running again. ;)

• Sarah