Episode 15: Top 3 Traits that the Most Impactful O&M Specialists Have
I've really been thinking about what makes an impactful Orientation and Mobility specialist. A couple of episodes back, we talked about how you can be more successful in your life and how to define what that looks like for you. Now, we're going to take that information and apply it here because I want to share with you the three traits that the most impactful O&M specialist has.
How do you define impactful? Our friend, Google, says impactful is having a major impact or effect. Someone effective can be the person who decided to fervently work on his career to be influential or he can be the person who is successful in his own rights. The latter doesn’t necessarily mean that he has a career that is in front of the whole world because that may not be his version of success. Some people may or may not consider that’s impactful for themselves, but in their teachings, these traits help them to be the most effective teachers possible.
1. Resiliency
I think the first trait that the most impactful O&M specialists have is resiliency. Resiliency is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, or toughness. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape or elasticity. We'll go with the first one, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. I don't think that anybody in the orientation and mobility world can say that our jobs come without any difficulties, but it's your ability to recover quickly from those, and also to be resourceful and figure out ways to overcome them. With O&M specialists have resiliency, they have the ability to objectify failure. They have the ability to allow themselves to fail, without taking it personally, to the point where they don't try again, or they don't allow themselves to fail to begin with. Without this ability, without having the fortitude to try new things, we do not grow. We cannot be as effective as possible in our profession. If we keep stunting our own growth, the only thing that happens is that we stunt the growth of our students.
2. Students for Life
The second trait that the most impactful O&M specialist have is that, they are students for life. After graduating from the university or finishing a Master’s Degree, they know learning never stops. At some point, they have to put the student back on and realize that they don't know everything. In fact for O&M specialists, they strive to stay abreast on current issues but not just topics that they need right now. They look at things like, what new technologies are coming down the pipe, what new road styles are coming up, what new canes are coming up. They ponder if there are new ways that we should be assessing students. They are able to not just keep their head down and focus only on the issues that their caseload is having right now, but lift their head up to look out into the horizon and be able to set themselves up to be in a position to take in that information, even if it doesn't feel 100% applicable right now. By being students for life, O&M specialists seek out their blind spots and seek knowledge before they even need it.
3. A part of a BIGGER mission
It can become really easy to isolate yourself on an island, all by yourself for years, and not reach out to other people. You just go through your daily life, helping your students on that scale. But I think when you're part of a bigger mission, it makes your acceleration for your career even more amped. At Allied Independence, we aren’t just creating conferences and online courses for you. We are creating a movement. Our mission is to help thousands of people with visual impairments around the world to live lives that are independent, successful, and fulfilling. That starts with empowering YOU to lead your most successful and fulfilling lives, whatever that looks like for YOU.
We are not the heroes in this story. YOU are.