Oy.
That title makes even me want to gag.
But really- It makes sense with the topic of the post: Leadership is everyone's business.
The new school of thought on leadership seems to take an unrelenting stance on this "everyone is capable of leadership" and "leaders are made not born". I've bought in. I get it- we all are given natural gifts (or STRENGTHS) and how we use them effectively when working with others allows us to contribute to the process of leadership. Everyone provides something different to add to the group dynamic. As the article on power mentioned: "people... will bypass their manager and their organization's formal hierarchy and structure to seek help from those with the expertise they need." Everyone has the capability of being an expert and everyone has an ability to influence others.
It is important to foster a culture of inclusivity and empowerment to ensure that people are able to maximize their skills. As the article states, "The more equal the power distribution is throughout the organization, the higher the performance of the organization". Power shared by all, and involving all, increases productivity.
But that's only one aspect of "leadership is everyone's business". Above- I talked about the idea of EVERYONE and how maximizing the potential and skills of all members of the group maximizes and effort of leadership towards those group goals. But what about BUSINESS? People have an obligation to maximize their potential to contribute to the group, but I believe their "business" is more important.
Accountability is perhaps the most important reason why leadership must be everyone's BUSINESS. The article reads, "what is tolerated, accepted, encouraged, and rewarded determines whether a destructive leaders can survive". By acting as a leader, the group can monitor all of these aspects to ensure that a destructive member will not take the group into the power-corruption cycle. Every member has a responsibility to contribute to a healthy culture that will keep all members accountable. So, while maximizing their potential is important, more important is creating a positive group culture to ensure that their group is not thrown off track.
SO. Everyone get your tickets ready- because everyone is a valued guest here on the leadership. Because without every single one of you, the experience just wouldn't be the same.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Social Change Through Soccer
So first and foremost- those First year students were so lucky to have this book chosen for them- Outcasts United was a great read- long, but I enjoyed it much better than Three Cups of Tea
Enough with the opinion: on to the stuff that matters... the SOCIAL CHANGE MODEL OF LEADERSHIP!
For the blog- I want to take each component one at a time and examine it within the book... but first I wanted to talk about the purpose of the model itself, the core component: Change.
Change is really the purpose of leadership. Bringing about change shows an active engagement in all three parts of the model (Group Values, Society/Community Values, and Individual Values). Luma was able to bring Change to her team in several facets: She provided them with purpose, gave them a sense of confidence, and provided them with relationships with people of differing backgrounds from all over the world. She fostered a community, a little subsection of society, comprised of many different types of young boys from many different parts of the world which were conflicted, and was able to get them to work together while appreciating the differences within the group but also emphasizing commonality in goals and purpose.
Society/Community Values were displayed through citizenship. I like how we see a lot of the action through the lens of the families themselves, rather than just the team exclusively. I think the most blatant act of citizenship was displayed through her "hair cut" rule. The community that many of these young men came from did NOT appreciate the long hair worn by their american counterparts. Luma even admits that she enacted this rule partially because she felt responsible to the parents of the young men in helping with adaptation to their new environment but without losing their identity of their native countries. Luma was faced with the challenge of creating dual citizens: well adjusted and educated young americans that appreciated the culture of their homelands.
Group Values were displayed most prominently throughout the book when focusing on the team. Luma was creating a strong group dynamic, a team where everyone was valued and collaborated as a team towards a common purpose: winning the game. I noticed that Luma brought a lot of controversy with civility in frequently dismissing her players after breaking one of her rules (be it swearing, arriving late, disobeying her). She remained congruent and fair with all of her players (as I'll discuss later in individual values). The fact that she was able to dismiss her players, even those she cared about so much (thinking specifically of Mendela- who she had the most difficulty dismissing due to how close she was to his family) brought a realization that the group HAD to develop. They HAD to listen to coach's rules and be diligent workers or else they would be dismissed. She never did this in a harsh way, maintaining the civility aspect of the controversy and always did so without emotion or attack against the boy. She just simply dismissed them.
Individual Values were perhaps the most strongly presented throughout the book when focusing on Luma. Especially congruence as discussed above. Luma was SO consistent throughout the book- unemotional, withdrawn (on her "balcony" if you will), strategic about everything she said or did so as not to show bias to her competitive players (who often vied for her attention). Luma's commitment to the cause was best displayed through this quote:
"The last third (of her team) would be marginal cases, those with behavioral problems and unstable families. These were the boys who could be counted on to demand the bulk of Luma's energy and who would most likely threaten the cohesion of her teams. They were also the boys who needed the Fugees the most."
The most difficult kids to work with, the ones that would cause the most difficulty and would be the most detrimental for the group, were the ones that needed this experience the most. It would be so much easier to just focus on the other two-thirds of the team: those who "get it" or at least get most of it. But Luma chose instead to remain committed to ALL of her players. The book even says:
"for her teams to work, Luma realized everyone would have to feel they were treated fairly"
a concept that connects both her commitment and congruence. Last, but certainly not least was the consciousness of self, which Luma used to create situations that she knew would bring out the best in her team. She knew how to best say something, do something, or respond to something to create the effect that would be most effective for others to realize their potential. This development started at a young age. Luma's sister admits:
"I always remember that my sister pushed me and I found out I was able to do it"
All of Luma's actions were intentional and were created to best maximize the results from others.
Completely unrelated but I thought this quote was cool:
"They need to figure it out so they can fix it" (speaking specifically of the time that the boys would walk behind her during their laps around the field).
Sounds really similar to the facilitation model huh? Not TELLING them they needed to run and not walk, but rather hoping that they would "police themselves" or figure it out on their own. Luma knew that to be a good facilitator- the boys would have to figure out what they did wrong for themselves, rather than her telling them. They had to work to learn, rather than simply listen to her opinion. I thought that was pretty cool.
Maybe we can ask Luma if she wants to join SLA? She's certainly one of the best facilitators and social change leaders I have ever learned about.
Enough with the opinion: on to the stuff that matters... the SOCIAL CHANGE MODEL OF LEADERSHIP!
For the blog- I want to take each component one at a time and examine it within the book... but first I wanted to talk about the purpose of the model itself, the core component: Change.
Change is really the purpose of leadership. Bringing about change shows an active engagement in all three parts of the model (Group Values, Society/Community Values, and Individual Values). Luma was able to bring Change to her team in several facets: She provided them with purpose, gave them a sense of confidence, and provided them with relationships with people of differing backgrounds from all over the world. She fostered a community, a little subsection of society, comprised of many different types of young boys from many different parts of the world which were conflicted, and was able to get them to work together while appreciating the differences within the group but also emphasizing commonality in goals and purpose.
Society/Community Values were displayed through citizenship. I like how we see a lot of the action through the lens of the families themselves, rather than just the team exclusively. I think the most blatant act of citizenship was displayed through her "hair cut" rule. The community that many of these young men came from did NOT appreciate the long hair worn by their american counterparts. Luma even admits that she enacted this rule partially because she felt responsible to the parents of the young men in helping with adaptation to their new environment but without losing their identity of their native countries. Luma was faced with the challenge of creating dual citizens: well adjusted and educated young americans that appreciated the culture of their homelands.
Group Values were displayed most prominently throughout the book when focusing on the team. Luma was creating a strong group dynamic, a team where everyone was valued and collaborated as a team towards a common purpose: winning the game. I noticed that Luma brought a lot of controversy with civility in frequently dismissing her players after breaking one of her rules (be it swearing, arriving late, disobeying her). She remained congruent and fair with all of her players (as I'll discuss later in individual values). The fact that she was able to dismiss her players, even those she cared about so much (thinking specifically of Mendela- who she had the most difficulty dismissing due to how close she was to his family) brought a realization that the group HAD to develop. They HAD to listen to coach's rules and be diligent workers or else they would be dismissed. She never did this in a harsh way, maintaining the civility aspect of the controversy and always did so without emotion or attack against the boy. She just simply dismissed them.
Individual Values were perhaps the most strongly presented throughout the book when focusing on Luma. Especially congruence as discussed above. Luma was SO consistent throughout the book- unemotional, withdrawn (on her "balcony" if you will), strategic about everything she said or did so as not to show bias to her competitive players (who often vied for her attention). Luma's commitment to the cause was best displayed through this quote:
"The last third (of her team) would be marginal cases, those with behavioral problems and unstable families. These were the boys who could be counted on to demand the bulk of Luma's energy and who would most likely threaten the cohesion of her teams. They were also the boys who needed the Fugees the most."
The most difficult kids to work with, the ones that would cause the most difficulty and would be the most detrimental for the group, were the ones that needed this experience the most. It would be so much easier to just focus on the other two-thirds of the team: those who "get it" or at least get most of it. But Luma chose instead to remain committed to ALL of her players. The book even says:
"for her teams to work, Luma realized everyone would have to feel they were treated fairly"
a concept that connects both her commitment and congruence. Last, but certainly not least was the consciousness of self, which Luma used to create situations that she knew would bring out the best in her team. She knew how to best say something, do something, or respond to something to create the effect that would be most effective for others to realize their potential. This development started at a young age. Luma's sister admits:
"I always remember that my sister pushed me and I found out I was able to do it"
All of Luma's actions were intentional and were created to best maximize the results from others.
Completely unrelated but I thought this quote was cool:
"They need to figure it out so they can fix it" (speaking specifically of the time that the boys would walk behind her during their laps around the field).
Sounds really similar to the facilitation model huh? Not TELLING them they needed to run and not walk, but rather hoping that they would "police themselves" or figure it out on their own. Luma knew that to be a good facilitator- the boys would have to figure out what they did wrong for themselves, rather than her telling them. They had to work to learn, rather than simply listen to her opinion. I thought that was pretty cool.
Maybe we can ask Luma if she wants to join SLA? She's certainly one of the best facilitators and social change leaders I have ever learned about.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
BGLI: An Experience Challenging My Facilitation Skills
This past weekend I had the opportunity to facilitate for BGLI: Buckeye Greek Leadership Institute. I had attended the institute at the conclusion of my freshman year, and I often describe it as the most formative leadership experience I have had since attending OSU. I made some of my best friends in the Greek community there, formed the values that have driven my leadership since, and framed my outlook on the community that I have maintained since this day.
So pressure was on. I wanted to provide the same experience for all of the members of the community that were attending this year. I was fortunate to be selected as an undergraduate facilitator. 3 of the groups had one undergrad and one graduate/professional facilitator, 3 of the groups had two undergrad facilitators, and I was by myself. Do you know how intimidating it was being: 1. An undergrad 2. A member of the community with absolutely no positional leadership in either his chapter or his council and 3. Being completely by yourself in a room alone with participants? I was a little nervous about what the participants would think of me.
I definitely encountered a lot of what we had read about in class. It's difficult being a "non biased" facilitator when you are so passionate about the subject matter. I wanted to push my values on the participants but knew I could not. Luckily, the curriculum aligned with what I believed, so I was able to use the curriculum to get the participants to really examine their beliefs, using strategic questions and conversation starters.
I spent a significant amount of time 1:1 with my small group (consisting of 7 members). A lot of great conversations came out, although the majority of the group was very reserved at first. Towards the end they came out of their shell and we were able to have some great, engaging conversation about leadership and fraternal values.
My high came after the "tough" council (or all group) session about congruity, a challenge for a large number of fraternity men and sorority women. Many of the participants described their emotions before our small group reflection as "upset", "angry", "sad", and "threatened" and after described their emotions as "better", "inspired", "challenged", and "intrigued"... that's when I knew that I was really making an impact on these member's outlook on or community, and that they were all starting to "get it" or at least were heading in the right direction.
I will always hold my experience as a participant close to my heart, but facilitating was an equally rewarding experience and definitely one of my favorite facilitations I have ever done.
So pressure was on. I wanted to provide the same experience for all of the members of the community that were attending this year. I was fortunate to be selected as an undergraduate facilitator. 3 of the groups had one undergrad and one graduate/professional facilitator, 3 of the groups had two undergrad facilitators, and I was by myself. Do you know how intimidating it was being: 1. An undergrad 2. A member of the community with absolutely no positional leadership in either his chapter or his council and 3. Being completely by yourself in a room alone with participants? I was a little nervous about what the participants would think of me.
I definitely encountered a lot of what we had read about in class. It's difficult being a "non biased" facilitator when you are so passionate about the subject matter. I wanted to push my values on the participants but knew I could not. Luckily, the curriculum aligned with what I believed, so I was able to use the curriculum to get the participants to really examine their beliefs, using strategic questions and conversation starters.
I spent a significant amount of time 1:1 with my small group (consisting of 7 members). A lot of great conversations came out, although the majority of the group was very reserved at first. Towards the end they came out of their shell and we were able to have some great, engaging conversation about leadership and fraternal values.
My high came after the "tough" council (or all group) session about congruity, a challenge for a large number of fraternity men and sorority women. Many of the participants described their emotions before our small group reflection as "upset", "angry", "sad", and "threatened" and after described their emotions as "better", "inspired", "challenged", and "intrigued"... that's when I knew that I was really making an impact on these member's outlook on or community, and that they were all starting to "get it" or at least were heading in the right direction.
I will always hold my experience as a participant close to my heart, but facilitating was an equally rewarding experience and definitely one of my favorite facilitations I have ever done.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Fly on the Wall
Well, with my selected student org having their meeting at 5 on Wednesday (1 hour is not nearly enough time to process and write a blog) and with all of my student org meetings being cancelled this week, I'll be looking at good old Sigma Phi Epsilon as my observed student org.
Last night, I took some mental notes of things that many may consider "unconventional". I tried to look at it through my other involvement lenses.
The first thing that stuck out as different was the way brothers interacted. Many points of the meeting were interrupted with sarcasm or a quick joke from brothers seated around the room. These interruptions definitely broke speaking order and were just for the sake of cracking a joke and were not beneficial to the point being made. This practice was modeled by our president who himself interrupted and cracked a few jokes. While this may not lead to effective meeting strategy, it definitely made the chapter meeting more enjoyable. Our organization is based on relationships between its members and this practice, although detrimental to a meeting structure, definitely exhibits the value of relationships between members, and I think lead to an overall positive experience in what could be a long, drawn out meeting.
Powerpoint was used to highlight upcoming homecoming events, adding to the excitement level in the room. The visuals (lined with jokes that had nothing to do with homecoming at a few brothers expenses but all in good fun) made the presentation much more exciting and less boring as it could have potentially been.
During the meeting, our advisor stood up and told us that the Rec Sports community will be helping us with our upcoming service event, showing that support within the campus community does, in fact, exist for our organization. The members were very excited by this as many felt it affirmed the work that we do as a fraternity.
Our current chapter president has said that he wanted to change the culture of chapter meetings, and I believe he successfully has as previous presidents were much more serious in their approach to meeting structure, which was much more efficient than the current structure but came at the cost of being much less enjoyable.
Overall, this was a very interesting experience that gave me a much deeper insight into the culture of my organization and how to effectively work as a member.
Last night, I took some mental notes of things that many may consider "unconventional". I tried to look at it through my other involvement lenses.
The first thing that stuck out as different was the way brothers interacted. Many points of the meeting were interrupted with sarcasm or a quick joke from brothers seated around the room. These interruptions definitely broke speaking order and were just for the sake of cracking a joke and were not beneficial to the point being made. This practice was modeled by our president who himself interrupted and cracked a few jokes. While this may not lead to effective meeting strategy, it definitely made the chapter meeting more enjoyable. Our organization is based on relationships between its members and this practice, although detrimental to a meeting structure, definitely exhibits the value of relationships between members, and I think lead to an overall positive experience in what could be a long, drawn out meeting.
Powerpoint was used to highlight upcoming homecoming events, adding to the excitement level in the room. The visuals (lined with jokes that had nothing to do with homecoming at a few brothers expenses but all in good fun) made the presentation much more exciting and less boring as it could have potentially been.
During the meeting, our advisor stood up and told us that the Rec Sports community will be helping us with our upcoming service event, showing that support within the campus community does, in fact, exist for our organization. The members were very excited by this as many felt it affirmed the work that we do as a fraternity.
Our current chapter president has said that he wanted to change the culture of chapter meetings, and I believe he successfully has as previous presidents were much more serious in their approach to meeting structure, which was much more efficient than the current structure but came at the cost of being much less enjoyable.
Overall, this was a very interesting experience that gave me a much deeper insight into the culture of my organization and how to effectively work as a member.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Student Development: A Two Way Road
When you think about it- Student Development is really a core part of the purpose of SLA: to facilitate a group activity.
But why do we have these activities? To fulfill the need of our fellow 40,000+ undergraduate peers. They are at our facilitations to learn or to experience something- we're not there to create hot air (although I'm pretty good at that...) but instead we're there to help them create positive change within their organization.
That's right... help THEM create the positive change.
We can't "fix" their student orgs for them. We can only give them the tools to empower them to do it themselves. Evans wrote that the importance of development at a collegiate level is "so that all aspects of the student's life are attended to and the environmental resources both challenge the student and give the support needed to meet these challenges so that more advanced levels of development result"
As SLA's, WE are there to give them the support needed to meet the challenges. WE address their needs from a student org point of view, which in turn provides them with applicable skills that they can use for the rest of their life. Leadership is about empowering others to meet their full potential. By providing facilitations, we provide our peers with these skills by empowering them to change their organizations (or by learning basic skills such as getting to know others, team building, etc.)
But what about us? Great question! You must have read and understood the title of the blog...
Well WE TOO get something out of facilitating. Why else would we be giving up our time to donate to help other people solve their own problems? I mean... I'm a busy guy and I could easily use that time to socialize or... I guess study? (and by study I mean go on facebook until I realize I'm not being productive and then probably make a few note cards and call it a night- how do I have such a high gpa?)
I think the most profound thing that I got out of from the reading came from Roger Schwarz's article where he said:
"Through facilitating groups, you can also come to know yourself by reflecting on how you react to certain situations, understanding the sources of your feelings, and learning how to work with your feelings productively"
This self awareness has DEFINITELY come in handy for me- I've noticed that during my own student development my self-reflection skills or my publishing, processing, generalizing, and applying experiences of my learning cycle have started to fully form. I have started to ask myself: "Is this making me happy?" "Why am I doing this?" "Could my time be of better use doing something else?" These questions have created a MUCH more emotionally stable person, improved the experience of my involvement, and will hopefully lead to a happier life as a student in college (and hopefully as a human being after attaining my diploma(s))
As a SLA, Ambassador, and Teaching Assistant, I have become a more emotionally intelligent person, helping to aid my interpersonal skills. I function much better in a group now that I can sense how people think and how I can be more effective in communicating with them- skills that have helped me in my orgs and I KNOW will help me later in life.
So I guess this "student development" thing is really a give-and-take... or I guess a give-and-give where both those being facilitated are taking away lessons to be utilized as a part of their development, and as facilitators who are learning to become more in tune with their interactions with others.
And that is why I am thankful that I am an SLA!
But why do we have these activities? To fulfill the need of our fellow 40,000+ undergraduate peers. They are at our facilitations to learn or to experience something- we're not there to create hot air (although I'm pretty good at that...) but instead we're there to help them create positive change within their organization.
That's right... help THEM create the positive change.
We can't "fix" their student orgs for them. We can only give them the tools to empower them to do it themselves. Evans wrote that the importance of development at a collegiate level is "so that all aspects of the student's life are attended to and the environmental resources both challenge the student and give the support needed to meet these challenges so that more advanced levels of development result"
As SLA's, WE are there to give them the support needed to meet the challenges. WE address their needs from a student org point of view, which in turn provides them with applicable skills that they can use for the rest of their life. Leadership is about empowering others to meet their full potential. By providing facilitations, we provide our peers with these skills by empowering them to change their organizations (or by learning basic skills such as getting to know others, team building, etc.)
But what about us? Great question! You must have read and understood the title of the blog...
Well WE TOO get something out of facilitating. Why else would we be giving up our time to donate to help other people solve their own problems? I mean... I'm a busy guy and I could easily use that time to socialize or... I guess study? (and by study I mean go on facebook until I realize I'm not being productive and then probably make a few note cards and call it a night- how do I have such a high gpa?)
I think the most profound thing that I got out of from the reading came from Roger Schwarz's article where he said:
"Through facilitating groups, you can also come to know yourself by reflecting on how you react to certain situations, understanding the sources of your feelings, and learning how to work with your feelings productively"
This self awareness has DEFINITELY come in handy for me- I've noticed that during my own student development my self-reflection skills or my publishing, processing, generalizing, and applying experiences of my learning cycle have started to fully form. I have started to ask myself: "Is this making me happy?" "Why am I doing this?" "Could my time be of better use doing something else?" These questions have created a MUCH more emotionally stable person, improved the experience of my involvement, and will hopefully lead to a happier life as a student in college (and hopefully as a human being after attaining my diploma(s))
As a SLA, Ambassador, and Teaching Assistant, I have become a more emotionally intelligent person, helping to aid my interpersonal skills. I function much better in a group now that I can sense how people think and how I can be more effective in communicating with them- skills that have helped me in my orgs and I KNOW will help me later in life.
So I guess this "student development" thing is really a give-and-take... or I guess a give-and-give where both those being facilitated are taking away lessons to be utilized as a part of their development, and as facilitators who are learning to become more in tune with their interactions with others.
And that is why I am thankful that I am an SLA!
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Past Blogging Experiences
If you like any of the posts that come out of this blog, be sure to check out my blog from a previous class:
http://stephenroth7.blogspot.com/
This previous blog addresses leadership in the lens of "fraternity" but I enjoyed all of my experiences blogging for that EDUP&L class that I took in the Fall of 2010, and I look forward to blogging again this fall : )
http://stephenroth7.blogspot.com/
This previous blog addresses leadership in the lens of "fraternity" but I enjoyed all of my experiences blogging for that EDUP&L class that I took in the Fall of 2010, and I look forward to blogging again this fall : )
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