Sheree Powell: Okay, So one of the questions that we get asked
  
most often is how do you manage the demands on your
  
time and the stress of the leadership positions each one of
  
you hold.
  
I'm sure everyone in this room understands the weight
  
that's on your shoulders.
  
How do you handle that, and how do you handle your large
  
amounts of staff demanding a minute of your time every day,
  
how would you chose?
  
So, I'm just going to let you jump in and whoever wants to
  
start tackling these questions please feel free, but how do you
  
handle the demands on your time and the stress of the job?
  
Alright, don't all speak at once (laughter), one at a time.
  
MARK JONES: Well, I'll start, with four program divisions often
  
times the work just comes to me and that's the main piece of
  
advice that my predecessor gave, Raymond Haddock that was
  
here for many, many years, but I'm not doing my job if I just
  
wait and let the work come to me.
  
I have to budget time to reach out, budget time to ponder the
  
large projects, the direction, the vision that we're trying to
  
achieve but, as I said, with four different divisions it comes
  
to me every day.
  
So it's a balancing of vision and reflecting on where we want to
  
go with addressing the problems as they occur.
  
RON BASE: And I think, in my mind, organization is absolutely
  
critical.
  
You know, you encounter people in the past, and you just say,
  
heh, I can handle this off the top of my head.
  
I'll make sure I answer that e -mail, I'll make sure I return that
  
phone call and they don't write anything down and I would
  
not be able to survive if I did not have a daily task list of
  
things that had to be done because in addition to those
  
things that have to be done, which usually does fill up my
  
calendar, you're going to have those situations where
  
someone is going to step into your doorway and say I've got
  
this going on, can I have a minute of your time and I think it's
  
critical to from my perspective is to have an open door policy
  
and always be ready and willing to talk to somebody who's got
  
an issue, especially in positions that we hold you can't find
  
yourself in a situation where you go, give me five, ten
  
minutes and I'll get back with you because quite often you
  
won't find the opportunity to get back with them.
  
So, you take that brief interruption and you work through the
  
issue that the person has and then you get back to your list
  
and by the end of the day literally I will mark off on my calendar
  
done, done,done, kinda done, (laughter) done and then things that
  
don't get done get moved to the next day and so in a nut shell
  
organization is just absolutely key with me.
  
JAMI LEDOUX: I think too as a leader you have to rely in
  
your team.
  
So, I think the biggest thing that you can do to manage
  
the demands that come with this type of work, particularly this
  
level is to trust your team and to delegate, to surround
  
yourself with people who you know are competent and capable
  
and can do the work better than you can, and I think the second
  
thing for me personally managing the stress for me is I have
  
to intentionally carve out time, I think throughout my day to
  
engage in activities that represent what my values are and
  
so I'm here in this work because I value people and so I have
  
to constantly be watching my time and make sure that I'm
  
actually carving out time that shows that I care about people
  
and not just that I care about, you know, budget, data and all
  
of that stuff, which ties back to people obviously.
  
It all ties back to people but I actually have to take time to
  
connect with the people who do the work and the people I
  
love in my personal life because that's where I get my
  
energy from.
  
ED LAKE: I think Jami raised a couple of important points there
  
that not necessarily about stress but about leadership and
  
being an effective manager is that if you want to succeed as a
  
manager in my experience has been that you've got to have
  
your fingers in every pie you're not going to get there.
  
Your people aren't going to grow and you're going to drive
  
yourself crazy and you're going to be less effective and your
  
team is going to be less effective.
  
So, my basic advice would be learn to delegate, trust your people.
  
If they can't do the job and you can't help them improve then
  
you've got to do something else but if you can learn to let go
  
of some things and take the broader view you'll have a more
  
successful team and you'll be under less constant pressure.
  
I have to admit I'm not one to really speak too much about
  
dealing with stress, (laughing), what I would advise and what I
  
try to do is when you walk out the door to your car is try to
  
leave it here to the best extent you can, and again, I'm not the
  
greatest role model for that.
  
This position and I think in any senior position, anything that
  
occurs that is about the Department of Human Services in
  
Oklahoma, I feel a personal connection so that if we have a
  
bad headline or a bad story, I feel like I have somehow failed
  
because we have had that happen to us and it's a driver, you
  
know, something, maybe I shouldn't feel that way but it
  
does drive me to think about ways that I can be more
  
effective and we can be more effective as an organization.
  
So, in my prior life I had a long commute, I had, Nashville
  
traffic is horrible, it's even worse now and it was, you know,
  
30-45 minutes sometimes and it was a lot easier to leave it
  
behind.
  
By the time I could listen to sports radio or put something in the
  
CD player and tune out.
  
It's a little different here it doesn't take me that long to
  
get home.
  
So unwinding and moving into your personal space is what you
  
have to do to help reduce the stress and um, or there are
  
days that I fondly refer as to the double scotch night.
  
So. (laughter).
  
RON BASE: I want to give everyone else a chance to talk
  
but I completely agree with the Director that, I don't.
  
Family is most important,  I've stressed that to everybody I
  
work with.
  
I can count on one hand the number of times that I have
  
worked late past dinner and had to miss dinner with my
  
children and that's purposeful.
  
There is an absolute reason for that.
  
I do not and I never did want to miss eating with my children
  
and my wife and somehow we manage to hold it together.
  
But still the stress is there and you don't want to take it
  
to the house.
  
So, my way to handle it, five dogs and a guitar, that's how I
  
do it.
  
I've got five dogs that are always there to be petted, they want
  
to be petted and I want them in my lap and I want to enjoy
  
them, and then I always take time every night to pull out my
  
acoustic and practice and play and at the end of at least
  
30 minutes sometimes an hour, at the end of that time I
  
feel better.
  
So you have to find what it is that makes you feel better at the
  
end and use that as your de-stressor.
  
That's really what I've used to get me through a lot.
  
SHEREE POWELL: Alright ,well let's shift gears a little bit
  
more and let's go into some leadership advice, because a lot
  
of the folks here today I'm sure will be interested in either
  
applying for a leadership position or just thinking about what do
  
I need to do now to start preparing myself to be a good
  
leader in this agency or in another agency.
  
We hope you all stay here (laughter).
  
We certainly encourage upward movement within the agency but
  
let's tackle one question.
  
What would be the most important quality that you look for?
  
Each one of you hire managers every day, what's the most
  
important quality you look for in a leader or a manager?
  
LEEANN-BRUCE-BOONE: I'll tackle that one first.
  
I've been interviewing recently for several positions and to me
  
the most important thing I look for and I look for this in people
  
I'm hiring and I watch for it in the people I have hired but its
  
integrity.
  
I want somebody that I know I can trust with every detail that
  
there's honesty there and that that is part of their core values.
  
I think that is so important so that we can work on any type of
  
matter and I know that whether it is 30 minutes on their time
  
sheet or it is something that cost the agency, you know,
  
600 million dollars that their involved in that I know that I can
  
trust them and that their being honest.
  
So to me that foundational piece that you have
  
to have but I think besides that you want somebody who
  
demonstrates initiative, somebody who is not afraid to
  
step out and make decisions and come up with ideas and do
  
sometimes do creative things, so think you're looking for
  
somebody that's a self-starter that can work well on their own
  
and work well in a team environment.
  
The other thing that I think is really important and sometimes I
  
don't think we talk about this enough and if you've done much
  
of the Enterprise Learning that is offered with the department
  
whether it's Thrive or Transform or Lead Up, we want
  
somebody who had those emotional intelligent skills.
  
Somebody who knows themselves and can easily work with
  
other people.
  
Some of the best supervisors I have had weren't people that
  
always came in the door and knew everything there was to
  
know about what they were leading, so maybe they weren't
  
subject matter experts but they were people experts.
  
They were people who cared about other people and who had
  
just that skill set to be able to work with lots of varieties of
  
work styles, skillsets, communication needs and so I think
  
having that emotional intelligence is a really critical factor in
  
taking on a leadership position.
  
DAVE LIGON: I would second most of what Leann said but
  
the other category or charter trait that I look for when I try,
  
and it's very difficult to do, but it's been mentioned by several
  
people on the panel is, do they an innate curiosity?
  
Because if you have an innate curiosity you'll ask a lot of
  
questions, you'll listen, you'll get different perspectives, you'll
  
actually go back and do some research yourself.
  
So I think that's a key thing for anybody because it's so easy to
  
get kind of, you know, this is my job and not look beyond that,
  
but if you're a curious person like Patrick said, part of the
  
reason he changed jobs and moved around was he was just
  
curious, he wanted to know why that happened.
  
Part of the reason that I've changed jobs and I do different
  
things is I probably have a slight little bit of ADA, I essentially
  
I get distracted after a while and I'm not that interested at
  
some point and then it's like I'm not interested in that
  
maintenance stuff.
  
I'm going do something exciting, you know, and I want
  
to change things and so you end up doing that.
  
MARK JONES: I would add to that.
  
Being high energy and effectively communicating because that's
  
what motivates people, and so that's what I also in addition to
  
some of these other characteristics look for in a leader.
  
JAMI LEDOUX: I think attitude is the other important one.
  
Do you consistently have, you know, a positive outlook and
  
approach the work from a positive frame of reference
  
because you see a lot of really bad things and some of the
  
challenges that we face sometimes seem insurmountable in
  
terms of what we have to overcome, you know, to be able to
  
improve the lives of kids and families and so I think it's
  
important to consistently have a positive attitude and set that
  
example for other people because they look to leadership to
  
provide that for them and it sets the tone for them and
  
sometimes all you have to hold on to is hope and hope that we
  
will be able to continue to make improvements to, you know,
  
invest in kids and families and if you lose that hope then you
  
really have nothing left to, you know, to give.
  
So, I think that's really important in this work.
  
SHEREE POWELL: Alright, well, I want to be sure and give
  
a chance and some time for those of you in the audience who
  
might have some questions for the panel itself or any individual
  
members of the panel.
  
If you're interested in asking a question just raise your hand.
  
I am going to bring you up here just because we need you to
  
speak into the microphone so everyone in the audience can
  
hear you, but who would like to ask a question, anyone?
  
Come up, please come up.
  
When you come up I will ask you to introduce yourself, give us
  
your name and tell us what division or program you work in and
  
then ask your question either to the panel or an individual on
  
the panel.
  
GREG DAVIS: Good morning to the panel, good morning to
  
the DHS family.
  
My name is Greg Davis and I'm a member of the OK
  
Benefits Project.
  
I'm the business project manager.
  
I work for Pamela Cochran and I've been with the state for about
  
a little over six months and so my question to any member of the
  
panel, if I had to go back to the project team and give them a
  
message from the DHS leadership as far as being champions
  
for the project as it relates to organizational change readiness,
  
what would that message be?
  
ED LAKE: That's a hard question (laughing).
  
SHEREE POWELL: Alright, whose next (laughing)?
  
ED LAKE: What this team is doing and what we're doing as an
  
organization, you know, is one of those, it takes decades to
  
get to a water shed event and we're at that stage.
  
Now, we have not been able to re-do our systems for 25 -27
  
years something like that.
  
We cannot, we are not positioned to provide services to
  
people in a way that people now days are used to having
  
services provided.
  
We are so far behind technology wise it's pathetic.
  
So, this team is going to launch this agency into the future
  
through its work and we are determined to support those efforts
  
to the maximum extent we have with the finances that we
  
have, with the time to give to the members of the team
  
to devote to this project and we have high expectations, which we
  
never apologize for but I think the charge and the work that
  
this team will do will probably last for the next twenty -five
  
years when we get it done because that's about how long it
  
takes to be able to re-do the system.
  
So, what I would say is, this is one of the most important
  
projects that we will undertake in this period of time.
  
GREG DAVIS: Thank you sir.
  
DAVE LIGON: And let me say, that  I probably Greg should have and
  
I don't know why I didn't mention when mentioned finance and
  
administration of course, OK Benefits is actually under my
  
umbrella and I would say that there are three things that are
  
really critical that we're trying to do as an agency.
  
First is we have to finish the Pinnacle plan.
  
I mean it's absolutely critical.
  
The other thing is if we can get, and we're hoping this happens,
  
you know in the future, is we get some budgets stability so we
  
can kind of figure out where the gaps are and we can do
  
what we need to do there but right there and I would
  
say it's one A is essentially what the director has said with
  
regards to these legacy programs.
  
They are, we know they are critical, we know they're going
  
to fall apart.
  
We know we've got to change and we've got to find the money
  
somewhere to do this and so I think that what OK Benefits
  
represent is really the future of this agency.
  
ED LAKE: Before you step away Greg, first of all welcome to DHS.
  
GREG DAVIS: Thank you sir.
  
ED LAKE: As a newbee, I would ask you and the team to
  
always be open about telling us what you need from us.
  
If you're not getting what you need, you're not hearing what
  
you want to hear, what you need to hear, then please let
  
us know.
  
GREG DAVIS: Yes sir, thank you, appreciate it, thank you.
  
SHEREE POWELL: who's next, who has a question that's just
  
burning in your mind that you would like to ask?
  
Please feel free to come up.
  
ED LAKE: Oh no, not Paul (laughing).
  
SHEREE POWELL: Okay, we had a ringer in the audience
  
and it was Paul.
  
ED LAKE:  Fortunately he's a non -exempt employee (laughing).
  
PAUL: So someone watch your clock for the exact minute that
  
I got fired (laughing).
  
You're talking about your careers has made me think a lot
  
about, about mine and I don't have warrant here to tell my
  
story, but I often ask myself, what do I wish, that sixty -two
  
year old Paul had told twenty-two year old Paul in starting out
  
as a career public servant and I'm wondering if any of you can
  
kind, if you could go back to that moment where you realized
  
that this is what I'm going to do, is there any piece of wisdom
  
that you'd share with yourself?
  
ED LAKE: Yeah, first thing that comes immediately to mind is
  
that can paralyze people in the public service or drive them
  
away is be prepared for it to be a chipping away process.
  
There are no silver bullets in this line of work.
  
So if you're not comfortable with the idea of small victories,
  
piled on small victories, you're going to be disillusioned and
  
you're not going to be effective and you'll need to do something
  
else.
  
That would be the first thing I would say.
  
DAVE LIGON: The other thing I would say is what a long
  
strange trip it's going to be (laughing).
  
Understand that and understand that you're going to have to
  
be adaptable and flexible because that's what's going to
  
happen and I think about where I started thirty years ago and
  
how the environment was different and what it is today and I
  
would say that most of what I learned the first twenty -seven
  
years was completely different than it's been the last three
  
years in some ways.
  
In some ways it's been better, in some ways it's different
  
and that's for sure.
  
LEANN-BRUCE-BOONE: I have two things that I think are
  
important.
  
One I think is the newbee often it's easy to sit back and want
  
to say, well, I don't know about things, maybe I shouldn't
  
question this or question that but actually you should because
  
as a new person coming in often times you have a vantage
  
point and maybe just a different way of seeing things
  
that somebody that's been here for years you get a little bit
  
tunnel vision at times and unfortunately it's just the nature of it
  
when you've done something a long time.
  
So, I think it's good to come in and ask questions and maybe
  
see why things are done the way they're done or well what is
  
the rule behind that, to not be afraid to challenge things but at
  
the same time, it's very important to hear that institutional
  
knowledge piece.
  
The people that have been here a long time have paved the
  
way and often times there are very good reasons for why we're
  
doing things the way that we're doing them but I think it's
  
good to do some of both and not be afraid to ask those
  
questions and at the same time rely on that expertise.
  
ED LAKE: Patrick, sorry go ahead Jami.
  
PATRICK KLEIN: That's okay, I was going to say, if I could go
  
back and tell myself something at the start I think it just be to
  
always remember as I work with clients as I meet people in this
  
line of work that this is just a point in time.
  
You know, often we intervene in peoples' lives when it's not
  
their best time in their life and fortunately now I've worked
  
here long enough that I've had a couple of experiences that
  
really have locked that in for me and somehow I wish I had
  
figured that out when I was actually working with that person.
  
Just here in the last couple of years my wife and I were at an
  
event in our local town and this woman came up to me and
  
she said, you probably don't remember me but you were
  
my food stamp and AFDC worker when she had gotten
  
pregnant in college and was trying to get back in and finish,
  
she just had a semester to go and I had worked with her as
  
an AFDC worker and got her into college, back in school and
  
we were able to serve her at that time and you know, it's just
  
your normal every day, okay I worked a food stamp case,
  
you know, you get into that routine, well I certify cases that's
  
what I do, but no, we have a much larger impact.
  
That woman who came up to me started telling me, you know
  
I finished school and I got completely off of assistance and
  
so this would have been 92, 93, maybe so for all these
  
years she has been an amazingly productive member of our
  
society, has paid taxes, has been a great parent to that
  
little boy that was a baby then and of course then I'm
  
starting to ask, well, what's your son doing now, well, he's
  
serving in the military and he's been on like two different tours
  
in Iraq and Afghanistan and what a difference that person that
  
we served makes for our society, for out state and for our
  
country and you know, keeping that in mind, yeah, this was a
  
bad point in time.
  
This was that one event or that one time.
  
It does not define that person that we serve.
  
That is not the best picture of them or what impact we will
  
have and so if I could go back and tell myself one thing it
  
would be that.
  
That this is just one point in time and circumstances do not
  
define the person that we serve.
  
JAMI LEDOUX: I just wanted to add one thing.
  
I would say, invest in relationships and partnerships
  
from the beginning because you're only as successful as you
  
are able to partner and have relationships with other people
  
because you can't do this work in a bubble.
  
You need people and I sit here and think about all the
  
different teams I've been a part of in seventeen years.
  
It's a lot of teams and people shift around and move around and
  
you're going always need those relationships both internally
  
and externally so that would be my advice to invest that.
  
PAUL: Thanks a lot, I really appreciate those.
  
SHEREE POWELL: Well, I think we're about out of time today.
  
I'm sorry we didn't get to more questions from the audience
  
but we hope you've enjoyed this today and we hope
  
it's been enlightening. (applause).
  
Thank each of you for being here today, I know everyone
  
appreciate your time and we will be, we are recording this so
  
we are going to put these videos on the infonet for all of our
  
employees to enjoy at some point in time.
  
So we hope you get some cake and our leaders will be here for
  
a few more minutes if you would like to come up and talk with
  
them and interact with them.
  
Thank you again for being here.
  
We appreciate it. (applause).