Royal Spirit Alive! How to be a Beacon in a 40-watt World

Sometimes, when you meet a person you sense an immeasurable strength in them. You perceive a personal powerhouse willing to tackle tough choices, to risk walking into the unknown, and to stand as a single voice and speak out on behalf of others. Yet, somehow you know there’s more. You sense that diversity is honored, your uniqueness is respected and there is a willingness to listen—to seek understanding. You relax. You feel safe.

Linda Lindsey in office

Such is the feeling you have when you stand in the presence of Dr. Linda Lindsey, School Director of the North Carolina School for the Deaf (NCSD) in Morganton, a school established in 1891 by the North Carolina Legislature. It is a publicly funded institution that serves all eligible students from K-12. Dr. Lindsey is the first woman to serve as School Director in the school’s century-plus history. For Dr. Lindsey, though, this leadership position is one more step on a career path that spirals up the learning curve and continues to spark her passion for the teaching-learning process.

Looking for the “Yeses”

A major portion of Dr. Lindsey’s career has been tied directly or indirectly to either adult education or children’s education. She says a good deal of her career has also been as an administrator. A look at her curriculum vitae shows a swath of innovation in adult and children’s education.

For example, she’s established and directed the management training division of an executive educational consultant company. She’s the past director of North Carolina’s five training schools for adjudicated juvenile delinquents, where she supervised a staff of over 700 and managed a $26 million budget. While serving as the director, the training schools earned accreditation by the American Correctional Association. As an entrepreneur, she’s traveled across the country helping communities discuss, identify, and prioritize compelling needs of children and families so resources could be invested successfully to enhance quality of life. These and many more career successes have created what appears to be a tailor-made background for facilitating the dance between so many different departments and across so many shifts to deliver a quality 24-hour cycle of care to the children at NCSD.

There are numerous daily challenges to making that cycle of care as coherent and as full of quality as possible for each child. Dr. Lindsey says her job is to empower people in charge of all the departments to get the work done and to make the resources available to do it. She has a personal philosophy for how she goes about empowering her staff: “I think you should say ‘yes’ to staff as much as you can, so I look for ways to say ‘yes.’” She even has three large wooden letters Y-E-S displayed at eye level on her book shelf across from her desk. She says it’s her constant reminder to seek out ways to accommodate requests.

North Carolina School for the Deaf

Learning and Innovation

There’s something that’s not spelled out in block letters and displayed on a shelf, yet it is crystal clear when you listen to Dr. Lindsey speak. NCSD is a learning place in every way. She says it’s a learning place for kids and it’s also a learning place for staff. Every staff member has a professional development plan. “If we’re not about the business of learning, then how can we be about the business of teaching?”

And because NCSD is in the learning business, a top priority is creating a culture that is safe and non-intimidating, an environment where people feel comfortable trying out new ideas. It’s about creating an environment where a certain level of failure is tolerated. Here’s where Dr Lindsey’s knowledge of change process research is like a rototiller turning under depleted soil to create nutrient-rich topsoil, where seeds of innovation sprout.

Linda Lindsey in front of original artwork of Main Building – oldest building on campus, built in 1892 and recently renovated.

She says it’s important to know about the “implementation dip,” a term used to describe how performance shifts downward when innovation is introduced. At NCSD, staff members are given a heads up that their current level of competent performance can bottom out as innovation is introduced. They are also told their colleagues are standing alongside of them, ready to help; they’re not there to judge and ridicule them. Hope and encouragement are added when they are told that as they master the new innovation, they will come out of the implementation dip operating at a higher level than their previous performance.

Dr. Lindsey does not just talk about NCSD being a learning environment for everyone. She leads by example, and is taking a ride on the implementation dip as she advances toward her goal of being fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). “I have to understand that there are going to be times in a one-on-one conversation or in a school assembly where I’m going to say something that is completely inappropriate or use the wrong word and everybody is going to break up in laughter. I have to be able to throw back my head and laugh and say ‘Well, I blew that one, didn’t I?’” ASL is one of the many ways Dr. Lindsey is demonstrating her commitment to learning and to nurturing an environment where each person can be a part of inventing the future on a daily basis.

Dr. Lindsey’s Leadership Tips:

• Develop a voice of your own and be willing to speak on behalf of those who have no voice. “I think we have a social responsibility to look out for each other and to take care of each other.”

• Give yourself permission to fail. “If you are going to make progress, then you have to stub your toe along the way. “If you don’t tolerate failure, the ceiling for experimentation collapses and you end up in what I call a ‘velvet rut;’ it feels great but you’re not going anywhere.”

• Trust your intuition. “Trust your gut. Listen to that kind of inner voice. It has something to say of value. I’ve learned that when something is brewing in an organization, usually, my hunch knows it before my brain does. I may not be able to articulate it, but it’s in the air and I’ve picked it up. I’ve learned to trust that and to pay attention to it and to follow it.”

• Be willing to laugh at yourself. “One of the most dangerous things in the work place is a person who is not willing to laugh at themselves.”

And there’s one more thought Dr. Lindsey wanted to share with readers of NCJW. She says she’s had a picture in her mind for years, which emphasizes a value that influences her every thought, word and deed.

“If a person comes into the room and they are in a walker, or in a wheelchair, or they are blind, or they’ve lost an arm, you notice that and you accommodate for it. You don’t say anything about it, but you are polite and you accommodate for it. I think that once people have lived for a few decades that all of us have had enough emotional damage and suffered enough emotional loss that if it were visible, we would all be in wheelchairs. So, I think you have to assume every single person you encounter, every day, has their own hurt that you are never going to know about and you have to treat them with deference, and respect, and kindness, and accommodate [that].”

Sometimes, when you meet a person you sense an immeasurable strength in them. Somehow you know there’s more. You relax. You feel safe. It’s the feeling you experience in the presence of Dr. Linda Lindsey.

Dr. Lindsey can be reached at:
North Carolina School for the Deaf
517 West Fleming Drive
Morganton, NC 28655

Office (828) 432-5215
Cell (828) 443-2148
E-mail: Linda.Lindsey@ncmail.net