 Welcome to the Leading with Purpose. Each episode is an exciting journey, offering an exclusive opportunity to hear from Vermont's impactful leaders. Whether from the fields of business, government, or the nonprofit sectors, these leaders share their personal and professional experiences, unveiling the challenges and achievements that have shaped their paths. Leading with Purpose elevates itself by providing viewers with an insider's look at dynamic organizations that promote positive change throughout Vermont. Join us on this transformative journey as Leading with Purpose unveils the stories of leaders shaping organizations and transforming Vermont with purpose-driven leadership. Discover the power of leadership that goes beyond success, leaving a legacy of positive change in its trail. Hello everyone, welcome to our new episode. We have Molly Gray today with us. Welcome, Molly, to our show and I really want to thank you to accept being with us today. So Molly Gray, she's the Executive Director of the Vermont Afghan Alliances and also she's a former Lieutenant Governor. So we are happy to have you here today and we really want to hear your leadership mindset and your leadership journey. So I have some questions for you and let me start with the first one. Can you provide a brief overview of your leadership journey and how it led you to where you are today? Well first, Pailin, thanks so much for having me and it's really an honor to be invited to speak to leadership. I feel like I'm still very much on the journey and when I was asked I said, wait, I'm not sure yet I'm ready to speak on leadership because I'm still learning every single day. But as I was thinking about it, there is one sort of motto or mantra or it's not a quote necessarily but it's something I believe and that is this. It is that we should never underestimate the ability of one person to do a lot of good or unfortunately history has shown us a lot of harm. I believe in the power of good but it's just to remember that we as individuals have opportunities to be leaders every single day and that can take many different forms. A little bit about me and my background and I guess the leadership journey it's included growing up in rural Vermont on a farm where hard things just had to get done and you've had to figure out how to get through them and I think that has instilled within me for better or for worse a blissful ignorance to impossibility and also where there isn't a trail blaze one and that has led to ski racing for the University of Vermont. I was a division one athlete working in Washington DC when I was in my 20s for our now Senator Peter Welch but then congressman working internationally and on international policy with the International Committee of the Red Cross going to law school serving as an assistant attorney general. I was deeply, deeply honored to be elected Vermont's fourth lieutenant governor so much about leadership not only as a candidate on the campaign trail but serving in elected office and then today serving as a nonprofit executive director helping to launch an organization here in Vermont that works to serve the Afghan community but I keep going back to that thread that we have a choice as a leader but also as individuals to do a lot of good and there's so much we can do to help shape the course of history to help shape policy to help lead others and we have to believe that at our core and I do believe that. Yeah, it's a great start. Yeah, sometimes we forget the power of creating good, right? It really affects everyone. So how would you describe your leadership style? You know, start talking about it but what do you want to say more about your leadership style and how has it evolved over the course of your career and how your leadership contributes to both organizational success and community impact? Yeah, when I was young growing up on the farm there was this if there's a will there's a way of mentality, sort of like get it done we can figure out how to solve this problem which is very much focused on achievement and problem solving which I do believe is a key component of leadership but what I know now and I've really learned is that leadership is not just about achievement, leadership is about how you're showing up how are you showing up in a leadership role? What are you demonstrating? What are you modeling for your community and for others? As a kid, as a teenager, even as a 20-something I rarely saw women in positions of leadership be it as lieutenant governor or as governor of Vermont or a lot of elected positions in Vermont. We certainly didn't have an elected congresswoman which we do today but also in the national security space, in the human rights space in the legal space, arenas that I've operated in as a lawyer as a policy advisor, even in the judicial space and so today I think about that a lot how am I showing up as my most authentic self? How am I showing up as a woman? How am I showing up as someone working in a space where I've at times been the only woman at the table and how to be seen, how to have a valuable contribution so that is also a huge piece of leadership that I've come to understand and really appreciate as I've continued on this leadership journey that it's not just about the achievement it's about how you show up and what you bring to the table and how you model the best of yourself for those around you. Yeah, great. So can you share a specific initiative? I know you have many but like one that you really want to share with us or project where your organization has made a meaningful contribution to the local community? Yeah, I'm actually excited today. I'm in my office, the Vermont Afghan Alliance. We're a new nonprofit in Vermont that I helped launch after completing my term as Lieutenant Governor. Today, Vermont is home to more than 300 Afghan refugees who fled after the fall of the Afghan government after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, fled to the United States. We have the largest per capita percentage of refugees in the United States here in Vermont and I always believe that we would never invite someone into our home and not provide them food or a place to sleep or safety in Vermont is my home and feeling a deep sense of responsibility to kind of galvanize the experiences that I have and skills that I have to help launch this organization. Today, we're providing driving lessons to members of the Afghan community, helping with the road test, helping to get folks into cars and into good jobs, helping with interpretation, translation and case management with all of the different pieces that a new person in a foreign land is trying to navigate, but of course that's even more challenging when you don't speak the language and it's tough. It has been an incredible opportunity to also work with communities across the state, with the Montpelier CBRAN community, the Central Vermont Refugee Action or Asylum Network, and just with so many different community partners who are coming together, volunteers included, to make the Afghan community feel welcome and I love this work. It's a new type of leadership and I'm learning a lot through it and I'm really embracing it and I'm excited about, as much as I'm giving, I'm excited about as much as I'm learning in the process as a new leader in a new space. Yeah, yeah. So sometimes when leaders get experienced, they think that their job is to teach everything they know, but as you said, learning, it's also very, very important part over being an effective leader. So in what ways do you believe purpose-driven leadership can transform not only organization, but also entire communities? I love this question because for me, it's really hard to lead if you don't feel purpose. I think that it's at the core of leading an organization, leading a movement, leading an office. Lieutenant Governor's office, it's relevant to leading on human rights issues or being an advocate. It's so relevant to seeing big policy change, which I think is also a part of leadership, but as I was thinking about purpose, there's often this feeling within the nonprofit community that if you're not so deeply purpose-driven that you're willing to give up everything else around you, that you're not really as dedicated as competition around dedication. And so I think that purpose also has to be balanced against or coupled with other extremely important components, self-care, for example. We often talk about here at the Alliance for key principles that you take care of yourself first and foremost so that you can provide the best care and support to those around you, be it your colleagues or the Afghan clients who are coming into the office and are in crisis and need assistance and support and guidance, treating everyone with respect and then trying to have fun in the process but self-care being the biggest component of that. And as an executive director and as a former Lieutenant Governor, I take that very seriously now and even more so as I get older and I'm a new mom now and if I am in my best care space, being my best self and I'm taking care of myself that I'm able to see issues, that I'm able to be creative, that I'm able to give the best of me to those around me and I think that that is not something that's often talked about in leadership or the leadership that I've seen in the past but it needs to be talked about and it needs to be prioritized and I think it's a key component and has to be coupled with purpose. I also think that process really matters and that process is having a thoughtful process in setting up an office and guiding or empowering other people. It takes time and it means sometimes you have to go slow, right? It's not a get it done. It is how are we doing this and how are we doing it in a way that doesn't create harm but actually creates more opportunity? That's really important and I know these may seem like basic things but I see them as key components and then finally trust being at the root of everything that you're building trust in the community that you're working within, that you're doing what you say you're going to do and you're doing it really well and you're showing up with dignity and you're showing up with an integrity and leading by example every day which again should seem like basic tenets of good leadership but I think that we lose sight of those and we're seeing it in the world that we're in today and I'll leave it at that. I don't need to go much deeper than that but it's really important. So purpose plus, we call it purpose plus. Exactly. Oh, I like that term. It's pretty good. Like, okay, I might steal it. Purpose plus. Great. So sometimes we think that basic things are like really like the first step to do but sometimes they are really difficult to succeed so all the things you listed, they are so important. So do you have any story which has these things in it like can you share a success story highlights that approach? Yeah, as a nonprofit, oftentimes and nonprofit leaders know this, you're a grant funded and you write these grants and you think you really know. You're like, I think I know a problem and I know how to solve it and I'm going to seek funding and support to do that and then you realize that wait, that was my understanding of an issue or that actually isn't the right solution for this problem that's evolving and working now with the Afghan community, a community that is still connected to a country that is largely war-torn, families that are separated, obviously tremendous cultural differences. I've had to take whatever I know of Afghanistan and working internationally, throw it out the window and just sit back and listen and really observe and try to learn and unlearn and I'll share an example that it's small and it may seem trivial, but I'll share it. I was really concerned when I first started working with the community and stepped into a role as an executive director, which is temporary because I will get out of the way and the organization that I'm working with will be led by the Afghan community fully and we're moving in that direction. I said, do I need to wear a headscarf or a job? I really want to be culturally appropriate and this amazing program officer that works in the office, this woman said, Molly, you recognize that by wearing the hijab, by putting on the headscarf, not because it's your belief, but because you believe it is what is culturally appropriate, that you are institutionalizing and demonstrating as a leader that that is your support, that this is what is customary and what is necessary, not only in Afghanistan, but right here in the United States, right here in Vermont and right here in our community. And it was the first kind of light slap to the face of wait a second, I need to step back and just listen and observe and learn and really trying to do that now at every step. And I think that's part of leadership and it's the ability to remove yourself from the center and put yourself in a place where you're learning and experiencing and showing up, having the humility, like having the humility to see the big picture and to course correct. So that's one piece. I also think that to go back to this discussion of self-care, I am a new mom. I have today, I was in March of 2024, I have an eight month old and I took some maternity leave and I came back after 12 weeks, which was really tough. In my office, you can't see it right now, but my office on the floor here, I have my son Jack's toys. I have blankets, I have a chair for him. He comes to work with me quite often because it's just the way it is when childcare is closed and I've tried to model and embrace that being a leader means also kind of accepting and modeling, having a family-friendly workspace and that also means being a mom and that I can be both and I can do that and to show the staff and the community around me that kids are welcome here and it's okay to be both and that we really want to accept and embrace and celebrate each other fully and that doesn't mean hiding your family or not forcing anyone to sacrifice between being both of those things. So I show up with that today and I think that's really important in a part of the approach. Yeah, so I have all these questions just to hear and understand your leadership mindset and you have given such a great examples, but if you want to edit and you want to add, it will be great to hear in addition to these questions. Then I will have one last question for you. I guess I was thinking about the last point, modeling. I mean, it's how we're modeling leadership and having time for self-care and having time to really think about what it means to show up as our best selves. And I know I've said that throughout, but I really feel that now as part of embracing the journey and also moving from, as I said earlier, that place of being the doer that rolls up the sleeves on the farm and is like, let's figure out how to get it done, which is important, but what does it mean to inspire and empower others to do their best work? What does it mean to just have the peace of mind and the clarity to say, okay, this isn't a crisis and I'm going to help you figure this out. We're going to problem solve together. I really, I'm enjoying, I'm almost 40 and I'm enjoying, I think having a little bit of clarity around what it means to lead versus what it means to do. And that's exciting. And I'm really excited about this next chapter. I don't even know what it is, but part of it's the work they're moving now, but what the future will look like and just embracing being okay with who I am and what I've done and what I have to bring to the table and blazing a trail where there isn't one. Yeah. So as a Turkish-American and just immigrant woman who moved to the United States at Montpelier-Bermond like seven years ago, all the things you mentioned, it's really resonate with me so much and I am so inspired and I'm so honored listening this from you and like hearing all the things you are doing for other immigrant women. It is really so motivational and I really would like to thank you again. And I just want to ask last question because sometimes we need some self-motivation, right? So can you please share a leadership statement or code with us that inspire you in your leadership journey? I have so many quotes that I was like, oh gosh, which one would I want to share? I do think a lot about what it was saying about the trail and where there isn't a trail, a blaze one. And I think it was Emerson Ralfolder, Emerson that said something like that where don't go where the path may lead you. Go forth and blaze a new trail or if there isn't a trail, blaze one. Something to matter of fact, I'm butchering it. But I do believe that and we have to especially as women if we don't see the leadership be the leadership and part of leading is having that audacity to step into the impossible, not to take no for an answer and have this excitement about the possibility to go back to the beginning, the possibility of what one person can do. And I believe that one person can do a lot of good step by step, day by day. And that's exciting. So I'll leave it there. And Palin, thank you so much for inviting me to join you. I know you've had a lot of distinguished guests. My leadership journey continues. I look forward to listening to what some of your other guests and speakers have to say. And I thank you for focusing on this issue at a time where good leadership is so important and we're thirsty for it and we need to see it. So thank you. And thank you for being here today with us and sharing all this wonderful stories and also your core principles and if I may call, like, you're calling as a leader. It is, like, again, so inspirational. And I wish we would have, like, more time. I could have listened to, like, forever. But thank you again for being with us today and thank you for sharing your leadership journey with us. As we conclude another inspiring episode of Leading the Purpose, we want to express our appreciation for joining us on this transformative journey. Throughout this series, we have had the privilege of delving into the lives and leadership styles of Vermont's most impactful individuals. The exclusive journey we have shared have allowed us to hear firsthand from influential leaders across the business, government and nonprofit sectors. We have gained a unique understanding of what it truly means to lead with purpose. The heart of Leading with Purpose lies in its commitment to showcasing leaders who are committed to giving back to their communities, demonstrating how leadership extends far beyond office walls. We hope you have been inspired by the generous actions of these extraordinary individuals, seeing firsthand how leadership can make a lasting impact on the community. We invite you to continue on this journey with us as Leading with Purpose explores the stories of leaders who are not only shaping their organizations but also transforming Vermont through purpose-driven leadership. Thank you for being a part of this inspiring community and we look forward to sharing more impactful stories of leadership and purpose in the episodes to come.