18:83 Speaker Series: Kathy Lund’s lessons from ‘the messy middle’

Nistler College’s Director of Career & Professional Development says her ‘personal board of directors’ and trust in herself developed her leadership

At seven years old, Kathy Lund had her life planned out.

The little girl from Grand Forks was going to be a lawyer.

“All I knew was that I had to go to college; I had to go to law school; and then I was going to ultimately become the lawyer that I wanted to be,” she said.

But speaking on campus this week for UND’s 18:83 Speaker Series — as the longtime director of Career & Professional Development at the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration — Lund was quick to note that the ensuing journey changed her and her plans in ways she couldn’t expect.

Her way of describing that journey was “the messy middle,” the unanticipated twists and turns that make up much of the experience of working toward a goal.

On Wednesday, Lund was the latest to take part in UND’s TED Talk-like series dedicated to leadership lessons from campus and community leaders, named and timed for UND’s founding year.

She shared stories of her career in a way that exposed the “messy middle” changing the course of her life at different stages. From those experiences, she came away with a better sense of herself, but also of who she needed beside her to move forward and excel.

Find your personal board of directors

Lund grew up close to UND and started out there as a college freshman, but it wasn’t long before she moved to Minneapolis with friends and fell in love with city life.

Its skyline filled her with excitement and the sense of limitless possibilities, just as much as moving to the big city gave her the confidence to figure things out on her own.

Lund graduated from the University of Minnesota and started law school at UND. Her childhood dream was on course. But soon after, the pursuit of reaching that point caught up with her.

“I will never forget the moment when I was sitting in my law school class, where it felt like the bottom fell out,” Lund recalled. “I knew right then that the person sitting in that chair was no longer the same person who had the same dream as before.”

It was a terrifying moment, she said. Without a plan, she moved back to Minneapolis, where she met her husband and started a family. Lund soon felt like she’d never move back to Grand Forks.

“Well, that plan changed, too,” she remarked.

Though the exact term was something she learned years later, when working at UND as a career advisor, it was her “personal board of directors” that brought her back to her hometown.

A student told her, “You’re on my board. You’re at the table of my life. You care about me, and I want you there.”

Lund urged her audience to consider their personal board of directors. Who are the people directly shaping their lives?

It was Lund’s close relationship with her parents, siblings and extended family that brought her and her new family back to Grand Forks.

She worked for her father for six years, who led an agricultural consulting firm. Her mother was a psychiatric nurse. Both instilled in Lund the leadership values she carries today, such as integrity and kindness. She wanted to be a leader like her father, who put everyone’s concerns before his own, and like her mother, who was a fierce advocate for those she cared for.

“My family has the biggest seat at my table,” Lund remarked.

Along the way, Lund has been able to add her colleagues and mentors to her board. Her love of students and their capabilities, both individually and collectively, makes up a seat of its own, too.

Trust yourself and your strengths

As Lund continued to tell her story, there were more “messy middles” to confront after her legal career was in the rearview mirror.

When her father died suddenly at age 60, the loss was two-fold. She also no longer had a job. Now with three children to support, Lund applied to work at UND.

“I knew that UND was a good place to work,” Lund said. “It had good benefits; it was stable, but that was all I knew.”

It turned out that working with students as a career/academic advisor — something she didn’t realize could be a career beforehand — changed everything for her.

“I was hooked then,” as Lund put it.

She went on to earn her master’s degree in higher education and soon moved to what is now the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration to start the Pancratz Career Development Center.

“Again, it was a messy middle because the Career Center was in its infancy, and I was tasked with getting it going,” Lund said. “I reached out to Ilene Odegard, who was the director of Career Services, and she was an incredible help to me.

“I started figuring it out, and, most importantly, I started listening to these amazing students, learning what they need and what they needed me to show up as — what they needed a career center for.”

More than a decade later, Lund found herself able to reflect on what turned such trying moments into successes in her life.

Trusting herself was something she admitted to still being a work-in-progress, but it’s a pursuit worth the work.

“Trust yourself, learn about yourself and figure out what it is that you’re naturally good at,” she told her audience at the Memorial Union. Lund specifically referred to the Clifton Strengths assessment as a useful tool to help build confidence and clarify values.

Addressing students in the audience, Lund encouraged them to find their personal board of directors — the people who will challenge them, help them grow and show up when they’re needed most.

Just as Lund has found those people through her career, she said the entire campus shares her belief in those next to journey forth.

“I’m so excited about the difference you’re going to make by the leaders you’ll become through your strength, values and trust of yourself and your people,” she said.