After reading through the Leadership Is statements from this year’s cohort, it is obvious that we have a lot of passionate and authentic leaders in our class. Each person had something unique and insightful to say, all of which were positive. Some of the responses were lengthy, and some were short and straight to the point. Either way, all the responses included genuine thoughts on what makes someone a leader. While I thought all of the responses were intuitive, a few of them stuck out to me. “Leadership is the empowerment of the human spirit…” said Michael McPhee, alluding to the idea of leadership being present in every human being. Whether they’re actively using that skill is another question, but every human can become a leader. Several other people shared this same perspective within their leadership is statements. Another commonality I saw throughout several statements was the idea of passion. In fact, I included this within my own statement. A passionate leader allows for so much more opportunity and potential growth than one who is not passionate. I could argue that if a leader does not possess passion for their work as a leader, are they REALLY a leader?
For my Spokane
Leadership Assessment, I chose to interview Kevin Parker, owner of eight
Dutch Bros locations in and around Spokane. My group and I were fortunate in that Kevin
allowed us to interview him in person, which was uncommon considering the
coronavirus pandemic during the time. We were quick to communicate with him as his schedule
fills up rather quickly and we wanted to ensure we would have ample time to
talk with him. Kevin allowed us to travel to his coffee warehouse, which was
not far from Gonzaga, and interview in his “conference room”. I put conference
room in quotes because when we got there, his version of a conference room was
a loft with a few couches and chairs in a circle.
For starters, I will
admit that I did not do any research on Kevin before interviewing him. I
considered it, but I wanted to come into the interview with an open mind and
not jump to any conclusions about Kevin from what I would have read online. Upon
meeting Kevin, it was clear he was a very laid-back guy and very outgoing. He
started by discussing the opening of his first Dutch Bros location, after moving
to Spokane from Oregon. He told us he came from a well-paid financial job and
wanted to run his own business. At the start of his Dutch Bros career, Kevin was
struggling financially to keep everything going and had two options: shut down
and cope with the losses or put all the chips out on the table and hope for
improvement. He chose the latter option and it is a good thing he did because
things only went up from there. He began purchasing more locations and by 2020
he owns eight locations in Eastern Washington.
Kevin also talked
about his history as a former member of the Washington House of
Representatives, having represented the 6th Legislative District from 2009 to
2017. While he was in the state legislature, he studied with The Aspen
Institute, which is a very prestigious organization that recruits few people. Its
goal is to guide people in leadership development by going through rigorous training.
In his class were some very high-profile politicians, including Vice-President-elect
Kamala Harris. He attributed many of his successes at Dutch Bros to what he
learned at Aspen and the people he studied with, some of whom are still good
friends with him. And although this is proof enough that Kevin is a valuable
and important leader in the Spokane community, he also adjunct professes at
Whitworth University and was a form adjunct professor at Gonzaga University.
Overall, I think Kevin
is a remarkable and quite admirable leader and person. His extensive experience
and opportunities provided to him give him great grounds to be a community
leader. I think this shows in his work at Dutch Bros, but also his passion for
teaching others about leadership as an adjunct professor.
One unique feature of CLP is the Fishbowl series. Fishbowl features
conversations with influential leaders in an intimate, interview-style setting,
often in Wolfe Auditorium or Hemm Auditorium. This takes place once a semester
and provides CLP students, as well as non-CLP students, with the opportunity to
hear from individuals that are creating change and sparking innovation across a
broad range of industries. This was obviously altered for COVID times, where
Fishbowl took place on Zoom. The Fishbowl I’m reviewing here was with Regina
Malveaux on October 28th, 2020. Regina has over 20 years of
experience as a tenacious advocate for women and children as a non-profit
executive, victim’s services provider, community leader and policy advocate.
She’s been part of the YWCA movement for many years and previously served as
CEO of YWCA Spokane. Overall, I was very displeased with this specific Fishbowl
speaker and left the Zoom feeling confused about my role as a so-called “leader”.
Much of what she was talking about seemed to portray traits that were the
opposite of what a leader would possess. More can be read in my official
reflection of this Fishbowl.
I think Fishbowl is a terrific opportunity for students and
can offer some valuable insight into how people across the world are leading
toward a better tomorrow. Unfortunately, I feel like several of the Fishbowls I
attended had sub-par speakers that didn’t fully understand the mission of CLP. Not
to say that they didn’t deserve the credit they’re awarded by speaking, but I
didn’t feel like some of them put in the effort to develop good talking points
and meaningful discussion for us students. Hopefully this will change for the better
in the future.