• It is important to share our stories since they matter and shape us
• A sense of rootedness and appreciation for place contribute to leadership style
• Discipline of practicing to make something perfect, regular participation, and engagement in organizations, and accepting leadership in groups that you value
• Acknowledging and embracing the authenticity of feminine leadership experience
• Learn to overcome roadblocks and crisis and allow others around to help us beyond

Formative Experiences.

Marshall describes her experience growing up on a 5th-generation family farm rooted in agricultural and land ethics. What core formative experiences and values have contributed to your leadership? How did you live out those values growing up? Which values do you still connect to today?

Influence of Identities. 

Which of your identities growing up influence your leadership currently? What do you remember about how those identities were received by your family? What about outside of your family?

Symbolic Reminders.

What tangible items do you have or keep to remind you of your values?  What happens if your past values and your currents start to not align? What happens if your behaviors change based on shifting values?

Learning by Doing.

14H/FFA – organizational connections. Levels of leadership and public speaking. What did it feel like at different levels? Three times slow. Three times medium. Three times fast. 

Training Grounds.

What have you gained from past experiences that have assumed assumptions about them? (Pork Queen – travel, impromptu public speaking, smiling 

How can you learn to take perspective of other’s experiences? What happens if this perspective gets in the way of you taking an opportunity? How does your perspective of the experience change based on how much (or little) you value the industry or organization?
 

How do you overcome your own perceptions of ability?

What is stopping you? How can you reframe your situation? (i.e. you don’t need to be the smartest, just need to be able to outwork everyone else). What happens if you can’t?

Mentors.

Who are your mentors? How can you mentor your peers? What do you look for in a mentor? 

When do you revisit the past with a more critical lens? (i.e. patriarchal systems)

“If our traditional and most holy images are male, then what characteristics do we honor in this world?” What does this say about women’s reactions to leadership? How do you think about perspectives of leadership?

What leadership stories do you know (and love)? What stories are told throughout U.S. culture? Who is or are the protagonist/s? What would happen if the identities of the protagonist changed? 

Images in the stories are both challenging and inspired. Images and representations of power, influence, and drive. How do you look at women in roles you have not typically seen? Are you uncomfortable? Are you elated? Are you able to read with the deeper meaning. Lynette and seeing a woman, episcopal priest 

Mistakes. How did you identify them? Who was there to support you or challenge through that time and/or those processes? Gracious?

Feminist: do you consider yourself a feminist?