Tricia Plate, Director of Operations

“I would just like to say thank you for the wonderful eight week LEGACY Leadership Academy I was able to participate in. This was an amazing opportunity. I definitely enjoyed the eight consecutive weeks. Learning about empathy was also wonderful. I am a social worker by background as well, so I’m very passionate when we are empathetic with others when we listen to others points of view.

So it is amazing as leaders that we learn about that. When I first stepped into a leadership role, the advice I received by someone was be the leader, be the boss. And that is not the way it is supposed to be. So super excited for the empathy portion and grace. No one is perfect. Definitely great hearing that the Legacy Academy, a leadership academy, actually talking about giving people grace and not punishing people for having wrong ideas or failures.

The only way we really learn as a society is through failures, and then we pick ourselves up. We put different processes in place and we move forward. So giving grace was huge for me. Really excited that we are teaching leaders to be empathetic, to give grace. Not everyone is perfect and that is okay. And that is why we are good when we work together.

My favorite portion was about accountability. That is the one that I struggle with because I do want to hold staff accountable, but I don’t want to come off as controlling or micromanaging. So really working through that, connecting with my burn to find out why, and then talking with my leaders to find out what their burn is, what their why is so I can connect them with the work that they are doing so I can help hold them accountable.

And it is a win-win for both sides because we are both very happy with the end result as well.”