Day One, Taking the Leap

By Deborah Meyer-Morris

Driving home from work on Thursday  September 12, 2019, the night before VCLA Day One, I was giddy with excitement and gratitude thinking about VCLA starting the next day. I have worked continuously, one way or another since I was 12 years old when I first starting delivering magazines on my bike. However,  I have not previously had an opportunity for formal personal development. Therefore, I view my time in VCLA as a gift.

I have not ever really thought about my personal strengths or picking a career that built upon them. I have always loved solving puzzles. Aside from the summer after my junior year at CSUN, when I briefly thought about getting a teaching credential (which was an acceptable career  for women in 1981), I thought I wanted to be an attorney-advocate since childhood.

As part of VCLA, all new cohort members are required to take the Clifton Strength Finder. On Day One, Hilary Howard shared her expertise in this area with us. She  taught us that we can only build on our strengths, and that we cannot build performance on weakness. This message really resonated  with me, especially after running for VUSD School Board last year, and losing.   I have spent some time, wasted it seems, over the last year trying to figure out how to identify and improve my weaknesses. However, Ms. Howard’s message taught me that my worldview was backwards, I should be working on maximizing my strengths.

Ms. Howard taught us there are thirty-four prevalent talents, out of which there are thirty-three million combinations.  These talents can also be arranged around four main themes: executing, influencing, relationship building and strategic thinking. If you had asked me before I took the Strength Finder which two themes best described me I would have said strategic thinking and executing.  However, my top five strengths did not include one strength in executing. My top five strengths include two each in strategic thinking and relationship building, with one in influencing.

Over the last week, I have really thought about this assessment, and my lack of executing strengths. Maybe this explains some things in my life I had attributed to other causes. Clearly, (no pun intended),  my strength colored glasses are foggy.   However, rather than continue to dwell on improving my weaknesses, I am going to take reassurance in my strengths and use the Cohort 25 to Life community journey to become a more effective leader and change-maker.

About the Author

Deborah Meyer-Morris, Partner, DK Law Group

Deborah Meyer-Morris is an attorney, wife, mother,  student advocate and civil rights activist invested in questioning and reforming systems of oppression through analysis of structural failures in education. She is also a strategic planner, individualized, learner, self-assured, relater whose pronouns are she/her.