CCE Facilitator Interview: Terrie Glass
Terrie Glass, LCSW, is a proud VCU graduate and facilitator for our Leading Effective Teams program. For more details about Terrie or to register for her upcoming class, visit the CCE website.
Describe your own career path up to this point.
I got my masters degree in social work from VCU and had a wonderful, 20 year career with Henrico Area Mental Health & Developmental Services. While at HAMHDS, I was in leadership roles for 15 years, as a middle manager and a senior leader. During my tenure at the mental health center, I often took VCU Social Work interns and, as a result, got the opportunity to try teaching an undergraduate social work class. I loved teaching and went on to do it every semester for 15 years.
After 20 years at the mental health center, I launched my own business as a trainer and consultant focusing on leadership development and communication. I also just published my first book, Blood, Sweat & Bricks: Laying Your Foundation for Effective Leadership.
When did you first start partnering with the CCE?
Jean Gasen first hired me to do leadership training classes.
What do you enjoy most about teaching/facilitating?
I love helping people develop. This was my focus as a clinical social worker, as a leader and as a teacher. In teaching, there is great reward for me in the dialogue – sharing from my experience and being challenged to think in response to questions and comments from the participants.
How do you contribute to “transformational change” in the workplace?
I like to think that I am transforming the leaders through the teaching, coaching and dialogue that we have in class and after. I try to help supervisors and managers understand the profound potential they have to impact their work product, their customers and the people who report to them. I think leadership is a privilege as well as a responsibility and I try to inspire my students to courageously pursue their own professional growth so that they can be who others need.
Describe a “lightbulb” moment you’ve had on your personal career journey.
I had a good fortune to work for and with a wonderful set of leaders in my organizational career. My first lightbulb moment might have been when I was being recruited to apply for the first promotion to be a supervisor. I was resisting the idea because I liked being an individual contributor – I knew I was making a difference in the lives of the clients I served and I was just getting confident in my skills. My prospective new boss told me that as an individual contributor you do impact lives – one at a time. As a leader, he said, you impact many more through the coaching and development of all the staff you lead. I believed him and took the leap. It was the best thing I ever did professionally.