"I recently volunteered for a project, but my supervisor gave the project to someone with less experience. I then asked to talk to them privately and debated that I should be given this project rather than Clifton. I suggested that Clifton had little experience, would take three times as long to get it done, and needed hand-holding along the way, spreading our staff even thinner. They retorted that, at one point, I had little experience but accrued that experience by being allowed to learn. They then said if I wanted to help and be a resource for Clifton to lean on, they would accept me as a volunteer. Humbled at that moment, I agreed, and Clifton and I became fast friends."

"Recently, a new directive came down from the top, and my department manager decided we needed to coordinate our staff to get the work done, but didn't want to tell them why. I disagreed and felt that explaining why it was just as important as explaining how they needed to perform the work to be done. So I argued this point. But my boss explained that without having management experience, there was no common point of reference for a solid understanding of the stakes involved. They explained that without that leadership experience, many of the staff would fill in the blanks with misinformation, sow dissent, and respond with fear that their jobs were in jeopardy, despite that not being the case. I hadn't considered this and asked for several case examples. They shared several where this had happened in the past, and I learned something new and followed their directive."