Bold Followership

Hey there, Cadre. Happy Monday again. It is professional development day, and by golly, have we been busy today in the Cadre sphere. You know, every once in a while, we do in person events in the Cadre sphere, and today in Minneapolis, we've been in an event all morning called r e s p e c t. Tell me what it means in the modern day workplace. An event on respect and mental health. So we had some wonderful panelists, like Doctor David Everett, who you may recognize as a contributor, and Doctor Christina Cohen, contributor, and Melanie Fontaine, who's one of the founders of Joshin, who helps organizations better support and work with individuals who exist with neurodivergent realities, and managers who have people with neurodivergent realities, because about 20% of people on your workforce have neurodivergent realities.

And then we had Matt Tappy, who was probably just on half an hour ago. He was one of the conversations panelists, and then a really wonderful human being called Grant Harris, who I think you're going to see more and more of in the Cadre sphere. And then I did a little experience, and then Shelby Wagner, he did a little experience with Shannon Paul, who, you know, facilitated the conversations. Anyways, that's a really long, fancy way of saying we had an in person experience today. And I know y'all couldn't be there, but my activity was all about the power of connection.

Did any of y'all tune into my live stream this morning? It sounds like it would have been an awesome event. Attend. Well, Jules, by golly, you're gonna get my part of the experience right now. And if you tuned into my livestream this morning, I talked about a ball of yarn, and this is part of it right here. So I always talk about bold followership right here on professional development day. And followership isn't something we're supposed to do. We're always supposed to lead. We're always supposed to be the first one.

We're always supposed to walk ahead. We're always supposed to ask the question. Well, I had everybody at this event stand in a big circle, and this was about 20 minutes after the experience, the day had begun. And I asked anybody, does anybody here not know what Cadre is? This is 20 minutes after an experience that's being created by Cadre had begun, and this one wonderful human being raised their hand saying, I don't know what Cadre is. I was like, h*** yeah. Bravo, human being. Way to raise your hand and to proudly say, I do not know.

Well, anyways, all of a sudden, this circle of people, there's about 40 people. They started throwing these two balls of yarn around to create this giant, beautiful web. So these 40 people, there were a potential of because there's 40 people. So this morning I shared a formula. X times x minus one divided by 240 times 40 minus one, so that's 39. 40 times 39 divided by two, that's 790. Within this group of 40 people, there were 790 potential one on one connections. At the end of the day, I gave them all a piece of the yarn that they were throwing around as a reminder that there is always the potential for a really powerful connection.

Not to be like, ooh, connection, but like, no, think about that. Because at the end of the day, that human being, that human being who said, I don't know what Cadre is, who was sitting in the room in an event, being put on by Cadre, who was brave enough, who was curious enough, who was courageous enough to say, nope, I don't know what Cadre is. And guess what? I bet there is at least one or ten or 20 or maybe 40 people who really didn't know what Cadre was either. But that one person who is brave or curious or courageous enough to say, hey, I'm following where everybody else is going.

And someone asked me a question, and in my seat of follower, I'm going to be brave or curious or courageous enough to answer it. She changed the energy in the room. Because guess what? Once that web of yarn was built, all of a sudden I told everybody to pull the yarn tight. And then I invited that one person to pluck one thread of that yarn and the whole web went bong. That one person was plucking, but the whole web, all 40 people, felt it at the end of the day. That one human shared that they recently informed their company that they exist with ADHD, that they are on the spectrum, that they're dyslexic.

This person is their head of HR. This person has been at this company for ten years. Your camera didn't freeze. I just got really quiet for a second. Think about that. This person is running a lot of stuff. This person has a lot of power. This person is silently existing with their reality. What are you not boldly following with? Here's the reason why followership is really important. You may think that focusing on your follower or your leadership is the name of the game for your growth. I'm sorry.

Get over yourself. Get over yourself. If you want to grow, take care of your little self. Take care of that little self inside. That's saying do you see me? Do you remember me? Do you care about me? Listen to that person. Because if that person grows, watch out world. So I invite you to find a little bit of yarn and to carry it around in your pocket maybe tie it to your keychain as a reminder that you have the opportunity to be connected. That you are connected. There are 40 people in a room. There's 790 potential connections and that number only goes up every single time there's another person in your sphere.

So hey Cadre sphere. Every single time you welcome another person into this community watch out world. 5000. 10,000. 50,000. 10,0000. A million. A billion. The planet. A community with resources with contributors and professionals and peers showing that there are many ways to wellness. What can stop us? I haven't figured that out yet but I don't think there's anything. Have a good one y'all. Bye.