California Surveyors Forums

I am looking for volunteers to get involved in State CLSA Leadership Committee activities. This is a presidential Ad-Hoc Committee
If you don't have time yourself, please mention this to your staff.

Our Committee will be preparing a series of seminars and educational materials for Land Surveying Profession, covering leadership, Business and Management skills, AKA Soft skills. Many surveyors are technically great but have missed the opportunity to develop additional skills needed in today's workplace, and into the future. Our goal is to take some of these concepts and translate them into surveying specific situations.

We have couple of people from this group volunteering already. If You are interested in contributing, and I have not included you yet, please drop me a note (here or via PM). License is not required to participate.
There is also room to participate on the Public Outreach committee.

Some of the topics we will be covering are:
Effective Communication: including listening, speaking, writing, and nonverbal communication skills.
Emotional Intelligence: managing emotions and understanding the impact of emotions on others.
Decision Making: considering ethics, critical thinking (logic), and problem solving skills.
Team Building: creating effective teams and resolving conflicts within teams.
Conflict Resolution: managing and resolving conflicts effectively.
Diversity and Inclusion: promoting and valuing diversity in the workplace, beyond protected categories, different skills, habits, ways of thinking.
Vision and Strategy: creating and communicating a vision and strategy for an organization.
Change Management: leading and managing change in an organization.
Coaching and Mentoring: developing and coaching others for success.
Time Management: prioritizing tasks, setting goals, and managing time effectively

PM sent.

Last call for the Leadership Academy participation.

We have a good number of high level people lined up to participate, this can be a great learning, and networking opportunity for more junior staff.

These efforts are being put into place to help shape the future of surveying and grow past some of the stagnant waters posing a threat.

trying out how this comes across:

So, you want to be a "Party Chief" and make more money?
That's leadership

You know a better way of doing something and want to share?
That's leadership

Want your 'old bosses' to adopt more GPS work?
That's Leadership!

You're telling people in here that their tripod is set up crooked - that believe it or not is leadership. Delivery probably needs polishing, but you have the right intent.

WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?
IT IS NOT JUST FOR THE "BOSSES"
Leadership is the ability to guide, inspire, and influence others towards achieving a common goal or vision. It involves taking initiative, making sound decisions, and effectively communicating and motivating individuals or teams to work together and achieve desired outcomes.
A leader sets a positive example and provides direction, support, and guidance to those they lead.
Leadership encompasses a range of skills and qualities, including effective communication, strategic thinking, empathy, integrity, adaptability, and the ability to inspire and empower others. Leadership can be demonstrated in various contexts, such as in the workplace, community organizations, or personal relationships.

We had a great first meeting couple of weeks ago. about 15 people were in a zoom meeting.
Went through introductions, and a number of people had great ideas about how to push surveying forward, and up in the profesional status, and how to establish and start disseminating this. One of the more notable ideas was that a cultural change is required.

This cultural change is possible when people learn that they all have some power of influence even in little things they do daily. One does not need to be a recognized high lama name name to do this. It was heartening to see a lot of interest from our younger generations (from my perspective that would be those under 50 years old).

Meeting are accessible to public. One does not need to be a committee member to listen, or even engage. Voting rights are reserved for CLSA members participating in the committee.

We also have people from all over the country in there.

Leadership Academy had their second meeting yesterday afternoon.

We had a very productive discussion about how to narrow down our ideas, and how to start focusing them more to situations applicable to Land Surveying.

For example, we explored a topic of communication little more in depth. When we google materials about communication, there is a lot of useful information out there, almost overwhelming, however, at the same time it is also very generic. We are transforming this generic advice into everyday survey situation examples.
For Example,
How to approach mentoring someone without beating them up and helping them stay motivated.
How to bridge the gap between field and office, not just physically, but in a way that builds trust, rather than being, all too frequently at odds.
How do we teach our students and youngsters to get most out of conferences and networking?
How do we communicate project details, how do we make sure that we minimize errors and problems from assuming too much, or overwhelming someone with information?
How do we communicate remotely and still maintain good connections?
How do we communicate to each other that we have common interests, and are not at odds just because ideas are slightly different?

On a slightly different note, there has also been discussion about some form of continued education.

Then there was a segway into emotional intelligence and professional maturity.

Also we are starting to narrow down some ideas on how to present this material. There may be face to face and online workshops, round table panels, conference presentations and even a few comedy skits. We'll see.