MENTORSHIP REVIEW

I had the lovely opportunity to have my mentorship review with Jessie Kasynski. Jessie's been there for my entire formal leadership journey, and I'm so grateful for her feedback below:

Julia DeBell is the atypical, typical PLC student. While most PLCers tend to think they must be loudly optimistic and declarative about their world-changing goals, nearly forgetting to be realistic in their approach; Julia is outwardly and confidently pragmatic while shielding her optimistic idealism under layers of cautious pessimism. This makes her wonderfully prepared for working in the real world, and out of the “hypothetical” world of incubator-like, collegiate leadership development. However, I am guessing, this modus operandi to leadership made her feel like the odd man out in PLC.  She mentions in her reflections on coursework in PRLC 1810, that the book, Quiet by Susan Cain, resonated with her because it allowed for the introverted, non-charismatic, non-showman leader to be effective while being genuine in their interactions and relationship to the outside world. I’m glad Julia was able to grab ahold of this realization and stay true to herself throughout her college/PLC career. I am delighted she held on to this, as well as her innate character, not feeling pressured to change because of her community of peers.

And while she may have experienced a lot of change emotionally and academically over the past four years, Julia has remained the ever cautious young woman I met at her PLC interview. I felt then, and still feel like I have to prove something is worth it, for Julia to believe in it, participate in the activity, sign up for the course, etc. This is not a bad quality at all, and she does not present herself as it is implied - she is not confrontational, obstinate, rude or demanding. On the contrary, Julia is the positive yet realistic, optimistic yet weary, idealist yet pragmatic person you want on your team - always. As a team member, Julia makes sure the team takes incremental steps towards sweeping change, sees all the implications of decisions both short and long term, sees the good in the bad and vice versa, and never gets emotionally ahead of the outcome. Julia is the calm amidst chaos and brings reality back to conversations when things get too hyperbolic.

I don’t think it is in Julia’s nature to lead from the front, from a podium with a microphone. But she is a leader, and perhaps better suited for the wicked problems that are growing evermore wicked with time. Julia leads from within, or from the middle, or by example, as one of the team. As evident in her work with the Nature Conservancy, she thrives and is inspired to be part of the work and part of the solution for the greater good. Julia doesn’t make uncalculated decisions or impetuous mistakes. And while that might mean she finds her “dream job” a bit farther down the road, it is not because she isn’t motivated, but because she is making sure it is all worth it.