My Leadership Journey

My Leadership Journey

Braille MonitorNovember 2016

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My Leadership Journey
by Karen Keninger
From the Editor: On Monday, August 24, 2016, the World Blind Union held a session on leadership chaired by Maryanne Diamond, former president of the World Blind Union. Leaders from countries around the world offered perspectives on the exercise of leadership, and the director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped from the United States was one of the presenters. Here is what she said:
Thank you, Maryanne, and welcome, all of you. I know that we have a lot of seasoned leaders in this group, so I hope that I don't bore you. I'm going to tell you about my own leadership journey, and perhaps some of it will resonate with some of you seasoned leaders, and for some of you who are working on that, maybe you'll get a kernel or two of something useful.

My journey began many years ago, and it was a small thing, really. My little daughter came home from catechism class with a picture of a chicken. I said, "What did you learn? Why did you draw a chicken?" She had no idea. I wanted to complain: she isn't learning anything. Then I realized I had no idea what they were really doing. I figured out that if I wanted to have input into the program, I'd better plan to do the work. So I signed up to teach. It was really a lot of work: I had to get lesson plans in Braille, had to plan the lessons, and then I had to manage a room full of rowdy nine-year-olds. But by doing that I had influence over the program—they really weren't doing such a bad job after all. But the lesson that I learned was that if I wanted to influence the outcome of the program, I had to jump in and work at it, study it, get to know it, understand it, understand the potentials and the constraints, and find solutions to problems. I needed to develop opinions based on facts and the situation that was there.

I learned that I could use the unique knowledge that I had as a blind person, as a woman, as a mother, as a teacher, and the unique combination of my own gifts to influence the outcomes. To do the work effectively I had to hone my blindness skills. Now I have been blind since I was a small child, and I'm a lifelong Braille reader, and my experience has taught me that personal literacy is paramount to my success as a blind leader. When I'm writing, for instance, it's not good enough to be almost right. I don't want people saying, "Well that's pretty good for a blind person." I want people to say, "That's pretty good." Literacy is not a luxury for me. Listening only is not enough for me, either. I use Braille just the way sighted people use print: take notes in Braille on my notetaker, on my Perkins Brailler, and on my slate and stylus. I read them back in Braille; I search them on my notetaker; I flag them, I edit them; I use a combination of everything I can get my hands on to compensate for my inability to read print. I use the computer with speech, I use recorded books, I use recorded magazines, but I also use Braille and strongly believe that without the literacy Braille provides for me, I would be less able to do my job. I need to write notes and read them back; I need to write and edit documents, including the spelling, the punctuation, the paragraphing, as well as all the content; I need to read and manipulate numbers on spreadsheets for budgets; I need them in Braille. So on my desk you will find a Perkins Brailler, a slate and stylus, a notetaker, and a computer with a Braille display.

I am very fortunate to have all these devices, but the second part of that is the learning and practicing using them day in and day out so I can be efficient to do my work. It's a lot more work to learn to use a screen reader and be efficient with it than it is to learn to point and click a mouse. But it's critical these days to getting the job done.

Mobility was another thing that I had to take seriously. I've used a dog guide since I was sixteen, and for years that was sufficient. But I discovered—I'm a little slow—that some things are better done with a dog, but some things are better done with a cane, and some things are better done with a sighted guide. It depends on the situation. My preference is to be independent. My choice is to have both the dog and the cane at my disposal so that I can have the most efficient mode for the moment. Aside from the practicalities of good, independent travel, I believe that it helps in maintaining my image as a competent and professional colleague.

Jumping in and contributing at some level was where I started, honing my skills along the way. That got me into a job at a rehabilitation agency. And then came another big lesson: I was given the task of drafting a new strategic plan for the agency. Oh, I knew what I was doing. I knew the program. I drafted a beautiful, logical, may I say perfect strategic plan. And I delivered it complete and proud. And they rejected it out of hand. Why? Because I did not get buy-in from the stakeholders at the beginning and throughout the process. Yeah, it was pretty humiliating to have my work rejected so completely, and I had to start over. But this time, on the advice of my boss, I gathered input from everyone first. I learned that leadership doesn't happen in a vacuum. I couldn't lead unless I could convince others to follow. And to do that, I learned that I had to spend the time and the patience—and it took patience to listen, to gather input, and to incorporate that input into the project. And—surprise, surprise—I discovered that they had a lot of ideas I hadn't thought of. When people felt like their concerns were addressed, they were much more willing to follow my lead on the project.

The second draft was accepted. It contained other people's ideas besides my own, but because I drafted it, I was able to define the foundation of the plan, and my foundation remained through subsequent iterations.

Leadership involves risks. Sometimes projects fail, and when they do, leaders take the responsibility. I spearheaded a big project several years ago to develop a new case management system in our agency. The project failed abysmally. I could give you a long list of reasons why it failed and a long list of lessons learned, but the point is that it failed, and I had the lead responsibility. The only thing I could do was pick up the pieces and move forward, taking what I had learned and implementing them into the next project. I've worked hard, taken chances, and, perhaps most importantly, I've learned from my mistakes. Today I am in a leadership position at the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. I'm at the national level of a program affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the United States.

Leadership presumes that you know where you are going, and people will follow you if the goal makes sense. I have a vision for my program, I have articulated that vision clearly (I think) and consistently for the past four years. Part of that vision includes converting our Braille program from hardcopy to electronic, providing refreshable Braille devices and electronic Braille books and magazines, and hardcopy only on demand. This is a big change for my program, but it is my vision based on my knowledge and experience. Four years ago when I came to the National Library Service and articulated that vision for the first time, it was a long way off. I knew it would not be possible to achieve unless several things happened and that I had a role in making those things happen. I needed a change to our governing laws. To get that to happen I needed the support of the Library of Congress upper management to include it in their legislative requests. To get that to happen, I had to sell the value of Braille literacy to a completely uninformed audience. I took every chance that I could to do that, and succeeded.

Meanwhile, we had to establish the need from the perspective of the stakeholders. So we worked with Perkins to organize a Braille summit to solicit feedback and ideas on all aspects of Braille. The top recommendation coming out of that summit—as I sort of hoped it would be—was making refreshable Braille devices available to everyone. I also needed to enlist the support of the consumer organizations, because Congress needed to know that this was an important thing to all blind people.

Another thing that needed to happen was a new technology. We couldn't even consider the possibility of providing refreshable Braille displays at the current prices.

I made my vision known as widely as possible, and perhaps that helped to leverage the resources needed to develop a new technology. That technology is soon to be on the market as a result of the Transforming Braille Group, which is an international effort led by Kevin Carey. It's going to be on the market at affordable prices. Our legislation has changed as of this summer, and now we have the challenge of implementing the program. The vision is clear, and we're closer to reality now. Getting the support of the stakeholders has been critical, and beating the drum with a clear goal helps people to get behind it.

Perhaps the hardest lesson I've learned is that I can't do it alone. I have learned that lesson many times over the years, and I keep relearning it. To bring this Braille project along I needed a whole constellation of supporters. I needed the National Federation of the Blind, the American Council of the Blind, the Library of Congress, and the International Transforming Braille Group, the educators, the Braille readers, the Braille technology experts, and everyone else interested in literacy for blind people around the world. I can't do it alone, but I can do my part to make it happen.

Leading takes practice and hard work. Like everything else that's worthwhile, the rewards are there, but so are the risks and the responsibilities. I have found as a blind person that a full array of alternative techniques is critical to my success because no one thing or one way is the best way all the time.

I have learned to take into account the opinions of others and to value and promote the skills of others to get what I want done. But I think the most important thing that I have learned is that my dreams, my goals, and my aspirations are as important as anyone else's. They are valid, and they are achievable. Your dreams, your visions for a better future are just as valid as anyone else's, too. If we each do our part and we all work together, we can make them all come true.
I will end with one of my favorite quotes from Margaret Mead, an anthropologist of some repute. She said, and I echo, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Thank you.

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