Leadership

Dan's post and a recent conversation in a course I teach inspired me to write a little somethin' somethin' about leadership. When recently conducting my Star Class, a first-year student leadership symposium, I asked the question, what is leadership? Interestingly, the students focused most of their descriptions on positional leadership. That is, the formal leader, the head of a group, the chief of a tribe. When asked if they were leaders now, many of them stated, "no, we're just freshmen" or, "I haven't been that involved in any organizations yet."

These responses frustrated me a bit. When will we begin to think of leadership as being internal rather than external. Instead of thinking about 'who is the leader' when will we begin to reframe our focus to be 'how am I leading?' I believe leadership is simply, conviction in action. It is understanding our deepest passions and connecting them to our communities greatest need. It is about the work that we do, not the title that we're granted….In response to Dan true leaders will hear the ring and pick up the phone….

-JK

Ring...Ring...Ring

It seems as though everywhere you turn these days people are anguishing over some market. (World markets, supermarkets, stock markets, flea markets, etc.) The economic crisis has led our country into uncharted territory, while government officials scramble for a road map. And although church populations increase, many have lost faith in the system. Enter stage left.. The President-elect, Barack Hussein Obama.

Barrack Obama understands that no stimulus package is large enough to save us from where we are headed in the next several years. Obama has recently issued statements about public service and hope, calling on citizens for more then contributions and knocking on doors. He continues in the tradition of former transformational presidents (see FDR, JFK) who wanted to impact more then policy making based on the difficult times. It seems as though the President-elect wants to create a movement where people are creating positive social change.

The President-elect has picked up the phone, and dialed the American citizen…….time will tell who answers.

It's not about doing it again; it's about doing it better.

The college football season doesn’t start when the lights are turned on and the t.v. stations show up with the fans, it starts long before anyone is watching. Some think the season starts in August when the team reports for camp and the freshman come to campus. Some think it starts in the spring when you get to practice again. But if you want to be a great football team you can’t just show up for the practices or for the season. The real season starts the day after the previous season ends and finishes when the final whistle blows in your last game. The football season is a 365 day long test of character and commitment. During the season most people only see the games and the record of their team. But for a football team to be successful there is much more involved than just playing the games. The season before the season is where championships are won or lost. It’s where teams go from good to great. The amount of effort and energy put in during this time is critical to the success of the team. It’s what teams do when no one is watching and the t.v. stations are not there and the fans are at home that makes the difference. It’s the character of the team that leads to championships.

In 2007 the Harvard Crimson football team beat every oponent in the Ivy League and posted a record of 8-2 and a “perfect” 7-0 in the conference. This set the bar very high for the 2008 team and presented the Crimson with one of the toughest challenges any team can face, defending the conference championship. Where does a team go after you win the championship? And the answer is very simple, you either get better or you get worst, you never stay the same. So Harvard had to take a different approach to the 2008 season. They knew if they just showed up with the same mentality as the 2007 team did than teams they played would be ready and could beat them. But they didn’t just want to show up and win the championship again; they wanted to do it better. It’s not about repeating as a conference champ, it’s about building off that momentum and getting better as a team. That was the 2008 Crimson attitude from the very first day of the 365 day season. They worked to get better as individuals to ultimately make the team better. And when it came time to play those games the Crimson were prepared winning back to back Ivy League Championships with a record on 9-1 on the season, a little better than last year.

-Joe V

Gen Y's/Millenials Believing Brain

This blog was created to provide a platform for MCPA (http://www.mymcpa.net/driveinconference) members and other higher ed professionals to brainstorm about new ways to help today's college students live up to their potential. I have given a talk at this year's conference entitled, "Generation Y's Believing Brains," hence the title of this blog.

College students of today, Generation Y, have extraordinary potential. They have been described as confident, visual, multitasking learners who are technologically savvy. Perhaps most importantly, GEN. Y demands balance between work and life, and pursues meaningful, fast-paced jobs that stand for social responsibility. While this provides an optimistic view of today's college student, the question remains, "How can colleges keep up with their students?" The ambitions of GEN. Y are progressive, but they get bored easily and look for customized experiences and instant gratification. Scientific studies of the brain might provide some insight into the changing minds of today's college student. What can we do to help them live up to their potential?

kb

The Words You Should Throw Away

I want to talk to you today about the words that we chose to use in our conversations. Whether a conversation starts casually and suddenly turns serious and somber or vice versa, the words we say in our conversations always, always sound better in our mind. The life of our words is almost perfectly analogous to being a step-parent of well-known juvenile delinquent: it sounds noble, makes people believe that every parental deed you do is actually born of your own generosity rather than obligation—because, after all, the little bastard isn’t your child, but part of you knows, even if you truly do love your step-child, that your obligated by your marriage, by some, perhaps ill-advised, duty to your spouse. But you always put your best face on in front of people, shruggingly accepting their compliments about your character, relishing their small gestures of sympathy that sustain you on your martyr’s quest. And, all the while, you tell yourself that your duplicity is ok, that it is in fact necessary to keep your life as copacetic as possible. What would happen if you actually ran away from the situation or gave up on the child once and for all like you’ve often fantasized about doing? Would things be easier, or would you feel guilty about it—forever reminded, in random flashes, that you abandoned someone?

Just like this poor, hypothetical step-parent, our words exist in a constant struggle, a constant division between what we our egos tell us we should say and our sense of obligation to other people’s feelings, situations, ect. But, unlike the step-parent, our words exist in a pandemonium that is too intellectual, and too private sometimes, for sympathy. We’ve all told someone a variation of the following explanation after a misunderstanding: “I just chose the wrong words; you know I didn’t mean what you think I mean. I just can’t say the right thing to you,” and of course, you got no sympathy in return. Why? As common as this predicament is, when you’re in it, you feel utterly alone, stuffed with words that are betrayed in the very act of articulation, words that have nothing to do but fester in your mind like disembodied voices of ghosts that want you to share your physical body with them. The answer is intellectually simple, but impossible for us to ever really share with someone else: Our words are inherently duplicitous, and they deceive you and me, their creators, who hear them first in whispers more than the world that hears them in our voices. And this seems especially true when our words are intended to help someone else. When we believe our words can change someone else, sway them to adapt our perspective as their own, we become victims of a savior complex that is destined to leave us in the same place of contemplation—alone, weary, and too exhausted to listen to ourselves.

What is the mystery of this savior mentality? Well, we all know the answer: the value and the danger of the savior mentality are identical; the savior believes that something has given he or she the power to say all the words that are floating around in their minds. And, even worse, this power misleads an imminent savior into believing that their imagined words will actually persuade someone toward one decision or another. That’s tragic…quietly so. Because the savior uses every word, knows no limits, and abandons discretion in favor of “being honest”—a noxious vapor, the only one that harms us without actually harming our atmosphere.

So how is this story related to belief and accomplishment? Simple really: as you work toward changing yourself or changing someone else for the better, there are always words you should say and words you shouldn’t say—no matter what you believe your position in a situation actually is, and no matter how convincing some of the wrong words seem. When you fully believe that a mere message spoken from your mouth will be enough to change someone, you are forgetting the only useful cliché that exists in this world: Only people can change themselves, even if they need your help to do it. Your words may be good, but they will change only you—no one else.

I’m not saying don’t try to help someone who needs it, but any words or phrases that give you that feeling, that conviction that you’ve finally found the key to persuading someone should be thrown away. I can’t tell you what words to use or what feeling to trust; that’s another mystery for another day, when I am younger in mind and older in body.

-EF