Literature is powerful in two ways.  First, while the setting or perspective may be new or different, literature resonates with us when someone has put something of our own experience into words; we can identify and empathize with the characters.  Second, literature expands our horizons when someone brings an experience to us that we cannot otherwise have.   These are also successful ways to develop as leaders — reflecting on experiences we have had and learning from them, and thinking and preparing for experiences we have not had and/or learning from the experiences of others.

Accessing this power of literature for leadership development, or any kind of development for that matter (as a thinker, an analyst, a friend, a professional, etc.), requires two broad steps.  Receiving, or understanding something of what the author wants to convey and how he/she conveys it is important for determining the theme of the work.  Attention to many things about a work of literature can help an individual or group “get better reception” and reflect on the theme:  characters, setting, point of view, language, imagery. Sending, or describing what you think of the theme, how it relates to your experience, to other things you have read, and then further describing any ways you can use these opinions, connections, and insights to help you in thought or action is the second big step for true development.  This article suggests an excerpt from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women to develop an understanding of a model for leading through conflicts within a group.

Louisa May Alcott was raised in a unique period of the United States’ history when intellectual growth and change were occurring at a rapid pace similar to the expanding knowledge universe today. She grew up in Concord, Massachusetts during the Transcendental Movement with the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne as her neighbors.  Little Women is an autobiographical novel about Louisa May Alcott’s childhood experiences. Published in 1868-69, this “domestic” novel became extremely popular and developed into a series of books following the characters, the March daughters, through adulthood. Meg, Amy, Jo and Beth and their mother, Mrs. March, form the center of the text and address situations that confront universal dilemmas that still resonate.

Alcott’s family joined into the intellectual spirit of the time and even participated in social experiments such as group living.  At the heart of the movement was a question, articulated by Ann Douglas, the author of the introduction to the 1983 edition of Little Women. The compelling issue of the time was: “Can democracy remain stable without threatening the creativity of the most talented members?” Douglas discusses the conflict of that age in which “the celebration” of self-reliance clashed with the need for a stable family and society. The question touches upon the management of conflict within individuals and groups both then and now; the debates on health care in 2009 ultimately boil down to a similar clash.

Douglas calls Little Women, “a fictive world in which conflict must be faced and transformed into newly energized cooperation…in a union that is neither capitalistic nor male dominated.”  In Chapter 21, “Laurie Makes Mischief and Jo Makes Peace,” Alcott provides the reader with clear examples of techniques for leading through conflict within a group.  It may seem like a quarrel among sisters, but close attention to the role of Mrs. March can be instructive for anyone seeking an example of effective leadership in a group conflict.  Rather than operating from a position of authority and power and seeking to direct the action, Mrs. March allows each daughter to determine what to do through persuasion, guidance, and clear communication as she deftly negotiates the impasse within the group.  Key among her considerations and goals in navigating the conflict is maintaining the cohesion of the group and she is successful in encouraging each daughter to be conciliatory.

The March daughters concede, and as Douglas suggests, “possess strong identities, yet must limit the expression of these identities for the self-preservation of the group.”  The self-preservation of the group is important to each March daughter and to modern groups as diverse as gangs and student organizations because it is based on the love and approval of the other members — upon community in other words, and not .just the issue at hand or the project they are working on at that moment in time.

By understanding Little Women, aspiring leaders learn that the building of concern, trust, respect, loyalty and yes, in some cases, love for other members of the group is a precursor to the successful management of intragroup conflict later and creating the group strength necessary for positive impact and success.  Mrs. March’s role as the mediator clearly provides a model for leadership in conflicts that is group-centered rather than issue-oriented or  task-focused, which can be transformational for the people involved and produce amazing strength in a group.

Adapted from a Humanities Classic Leadership Case by Dr. Michael Engs (first appearing in The Leader Newsletter, Summer 1999 Issue, a resource for Phi Theta Kappa Certified Leadership Instructors)

[Monika Byrd, September 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.

Game Theory accepts self-interest as a primary motivation for people, but much less attention is paid to the parts of game theory which point to specific cooperative strategies that have better outcomes for more individuals than if they each act according to their individual self-interest.  You may have already heard of the  “Tragedy of the Commons” and the “Prisoners’ Dilemma” and a few other examples of Game Theory (maybe the dating example from the movie A Beautiful Mind, about the schizophrenic, Nobel-Award winning mathematician, John Nash, who did ground-breaking work on Game Theory), but have you heard about the “Volunteer’s Dilemma”?

It’s nothing new.  Aristotle understood the Volunteer’s Dilemma thousands of years ago when he wrote, “everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill” (The Politics, Book II, Chapter 3).  And a small people named Yagan, from the Tierra del Fuego province of Argentina with their own, unique language, have a word for it that appeared in the 1993 Guinness Book of Records as “the most succinct word” in the world –  mamihlapinatapai, which means “looking at each other with each hoping that the other will do something that you both want to have done but which neither of you wants to do themselves.”

Game theory says that when such a Volunteer’s Dilemma occurs, no one wants to act first because of real or perceived loss or unfairness, but if no one acts, there is much greater loss — not only for the individuals who decide not to act, but potentially for the many more who would benefit from the action.   You can probably brainstorm plenty of real world examples of this.  What are the implications for your chapter?   Do you ever hear individuals, or the group collectively expressing the frustrating feeling that they should not be the ones who have to act, that the work is not divided fairly, that they are waiting for so-and-so . . . ?

Blogger Steven Demaio offers some very practical advice for overcoming the Volunteer’s Dilemma and other reasons we often fail to begin a project or capitalize on an opportunity.  He says the single biggest factor in failing to meet a deadline is failing to get started on time.  He suggests several strategies to make the beginning of a project easier, including creating an environment in which the project feels like it’s already underway before you begin it formally.  One of the best ways to do this involves concretely tracking the small thoughts and preparations for the project while other things are going on.  Populate a file or a journal with notes, contacts, items, or steps you don’t want to forget — as you think of them –  and you will have a start, rather than an empty file and the constant feeling that you are forgetting something you wanted to remember that prevents your timely beginning.

[Monika Byrd, July 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.

• Leaders who center on being designers, teachers and stewards (servants)
• Leaders who seek to build an organization where people are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their future
• Leaders who are responsible for learning
• The old model where “The tops thinks and the local acts” gives way to integrative thinking and acting at all levels
• The desire to look at things in new ways and to be generative is consistently present

Learning organizations do not emerge automatically as individuals learn and perform their organizational roles.  There must be active promotion and facilitation of collective learning.  The five disciplines for developing and sustaining a learning organization are:

1.       Rewarding individuals who seek Personal Mastery - organizations can only learn when they are composed of individuals who learn

2.       Creating Mental Models that do not treat generalizations and assumptions as facts

3.       Developing and emphasizing a Shared Vision

4.       Facilitating Team Learning where personal knowledge is effectively disseminated in an organization

5.      Understanding complex relationships and interactions inside and outside the organization and engaging in Systems Thinking – the fifth discipline for which the others are prerequisites and which integrates them

Senge says that typical institutions destroy the impulse to learn, which we all have as children, because they are designed to control and reward people for performing for others rather than for learning and expanding capabilities, as individuals and as organizations.  True – organizations are changing all the time, but in adaptive ways to meet changes in the current environment – a process that Senge says is merely “coping.”  People in learning organizations seek an integrated view and are Systems Thinkers who see challenges as parts of a system rather than considering them in isolation.  Why is Systems Thinking important?  If we only react to present events, we may contribute to further development of the problem that created the undesired event.  Systems Thinking focuses on challenges in the context of their relationships with other things in the organization – the system – and with other systems in the broader world and on longer term results rather than immediate, short-term results.

Organizations and leaders often behave in ways that create obstacles to Organizational Learning.

• They fail to Balance Process with Delay:   they take action toward a goal and adjust the action before there is complete feedback.  Without awareness of the full gap between action and results, the organization takes more corrective action than needed, or they may just give up because they do not see any progress.

• Here’s an example from a personal perspective: Turning on the hot water for a shower requires delay, but how often do we become impatient when it does not seem hot enough  right away and turn up the temperature too far so that the water becomes too hot to use?

• They Shift the Burden – Applying a short-term solution to correct a problem and see immediate results.  Continual use of the “short term” moves focus away from application of long term measures which in turn leads to only focusing on the symptoms rather than the causes.

• An example from a personal perspective:  using alcohol, drugs or even beneficial activities such as walking or exercise to relieve work stress while never addressing the actual cause of the stress.
• Organizational example:  shift the burden to an intervenor – utilizing “outside” intervenors to help solve problems without ever teaching the “insiders” how to deal with the issues themselves – characterized by organizational dependence on “consultants” or “contractors”

• They Erode Goals – Organizational behavior where the short-term solution involves letting the long-term goal diminish.

• An example from a personal perspective:  if your long-term goal is a B.S. degree in four years, and you drop classes that are not going well, you are diminishing the goal because it can no longer be achieved in that time frame;  we rationalize erosion of goals all the time by saying we are making them “more realistic.”

Here are some things you can do to contribute to a learning organization:

• See interrelationships – not things or snapshots, and think about the complexity of interrelationships as dynamic, not static; cause and effect are usually distant from each other in time and space
• Move beyond blame – the problem, the cause of the problem, and you are all part of a single system
• Avoid addressing symptoms; seek to address causes
• Focus on areas of high leverage; the most obvious solution may not be best, and look for small, well-focused ideas/actions and balance the implementation with delay to measure results

[Monika Byrd, June 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.

Speeches of Introduction

Purpose:  To prepare the audience to accept the speaker and his/her message.

If the speaker is a member of the group remind the audience of his or her role and accomplishments within the organization.

Goal: To create in others a desire to hear the speaker.

Plan:

• Be brief – Two or three minutes;  better to say too little than to speak too long
• Talk about the speaker
• Who is he/she?
• What is his/her position in education, business, government, etc.?
• What experience(s) has the speaker had that qualify him/her to speak on the subject?
• Tell the audience what they know or have done
• Do not praise their abilities as speakers; let them demonstrate their own skills!
• State the importance of the speaker’s subject and/or the occasion
• Stress the appropriateness of the subject, or the speaker, or the occasion; relevant aspects of the topic, or the speaker’s background, or the occasion can build audience anticipation and interest
• Tell a story to illustrate a positive character trait of the speaker or use humor it if suits the occasion

Delivery tips:

• Be sincere and enthusiastic
• Create a sense of anticipation and drama; save the speaker’s name until the last moment of the speech; pronounce it correctly!

Speeches of Presentation

Purpose:  To present a gift or an award.

Goal: To explain why the recipient is receiving a gift or an award.

Plan:

• Be brief – One or two minutes
• Point out the achievements for which the recipient is receiving the award
• Discuss the recipient’s achievements in a way that will make them meaningful to the audience
• If the recipient won the award in a competition, the speaker should praise the other competitors as well

Delivery tips:

• Be sure the gift or award is available and ready to present
• When the moment arrives for you to transfer it to the recipient call him/her to the platform or address him/her by name so he/she may rise in response
• Hold the gift or award so that it is clearly visible to audience.  Should the gift or award be an object that cannot be transferred from hand to hand, it should be unveiled or shown at the moment of presentation
• After recipient has accepted the gift or award give him/her time to thank you or make other remarks to the audience
• Step back and/or sit down while the recipient speaks

Speeches of Acceptance

Purpose:  To thank an individual or group for a gift or an award.

Goal:   To express appreciation for a gift or of the honor accorded.

Plan:

• Be brief.  In some instances, no speech is necessary; for a gift, a pleasant “Thank You,” accompanied by an appreciative smile may be enough
• Since a gift or an award may be a surprise, the speech is usually impromptu
• Use simple language
• Express a true sense of gratitude and appreciation for the award
• Modestly disclaim all the credit for winning the award; give credit to those who assisted you in any way
• Never express disappointment
• Repeat your thanks for the gift or recognition

Delivery tips:

• Your attitude should be sincere, friendly, appreciative, modest, and warmly enthusiastic
• If surprised, make no apologies for your speaking
• Speak slowly, clearly, and loudly enough to be heard
• Hold the award so it remains in full view of the audience or place it in an appropriate spot on stage and step to one side and begin speaking
• Do not be afraid of a little emotion; just control it

The Announcement

Purpose:  To inform the audience about an event.

Goal:  To tell about something in the past, about events to occur immediately or in the near future.

Plan:

• Gather the information or secure information from authentic and authoritative sources; do not rely on hearsay!
• Moments before making the announcement re-check for accuracy or last-minute changes
• Give the most important part first; the rest should follow in the order of importance
• Name the exact place/location
• Tell how to get there
• Give date, day, exact hour; if there is an admission charge, state the price or prices
• If desirable, tell where the money will go
• If there are tickets, tell where, when, and how they may be secured
• Summarize by restating the occasion, the place, the time, the admission
• DO NOT say, “I thank you” when you finish

Delivery tips:

• Prepare notes to be used in making the announcement so that nothing essential will be omitted
• Rehearse them until you have everything well in mind, people may have questions later and it will help you to be prepared for them

The Farewell Speech

Purpose:  To publicly say goodbye to a group of acquaintances.

Goal:  To express appreciation to the group for what they have helped the speaker accomplish and for the happiness they have brought him or her.

Plan:

• Assess the mood of the occasion; there may be an atmosphere of considerable sentiment and emotion or merely friendly gaiety
• Refer to the time you first arrived, worked on a project, took office, etc., or the way you were welcomed is an excellent recollection
• Point out how the ideas of the listeners inspired you to do what you did, and express appreciation for their support of your efforts
• Commend the harmony and cooperation that prevailed
• Say that you will always remember your associations with this group as one of the outstanding events in your life
• Speak of your future work briefly; encourage those who remain by predicting greater achievements for them
• Praise your successor, if you know who he or she is
• Conclude with a genuine expression of your appreciation for the group and continued interest in their future

Delivery tips:

• Fit your manner to the mood of the audience
• Use a friendly and sincere approach throughout
• Avoid overly emotional words and tones, redundancy, and flowery attempts at oratory

Tips for Informal Conversations

Body Language:

• Open your posture – Arms or legs crossed, hand covering your mouth or chin signals “STAY AWAY”
• Smile – Indicate a willingness to converse and listen; look receptive
• Touch – Shake hands
• Lean slightly forward – Indicate interest in what is being said
• Maintain direct eye contact – Natural, not forced; don’t stare; observe other parts of the face, especially the mouth
• Nod – Indicate that you are listening and understanding

Starting a Conversation:

• Be the first to say hello
• Ask easy-to-answer questions
• Listen!  Active listening means you wait until after you have truly heard what has been expressed before you begin planning what to say next; a thoughtful pause is o.k., and you will be sure that you are responding appropriately
• Ask information and seek follow-up questions based on what you’ve just heard
• Reveal information about yourself while asking questions that may interest you personally (If you haven’t introduced yourself, say, “By the way, my name is _____.  What’s yours?”)

Maintaining the Flow of Conversation:

• Focus on immediate surroundings and events
• Find out about the “Big” events in the person’s life: work, hobbies, career goals, etc.
• Reveal your “Big” events
• Seek common interests and experiences
• Discuss topics that are important to you
• Change the topic – “I heard you mention earlier . . .”

Ending the Conversation:

• In a friendly and direct way you could say: “I’ve enjoyed talking with you ______
• Use open, friendly body language: eye contact, smile, handshake, then be on your way
• Avoid long, drawn out good-byes

[Barbara Briscoe, posted by Monika Byrd, April 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.

Emerging leaders don’t always know how to initiate the cycle.  A good place to start is to examine your belief about your effectiveness with specific tasks. This is called self-efficacy, and it plays an important role in your general levels of self-confidence.

Think of a “job well done” and the specific things necessary to achieve excellence.  You probably have a higher level of self-efficacy — belief in your ability to do these things well –  in these areas than in something that you have never done.  This higher level of self-efficacy in turn leads you to think, feel, and behave in ways that further build those abilities and reinforces the belief.  In these areas, you are usually more likely to see challenges rather than obstacles, which creates opportunities to explore your creativity and build tenacity and perseverance.  Belief in your efficacy also leads to the ability to quickly recover from setbacks because your attention is on external conditions and circumstances rather than any personal weaknesses, actual or perceived.   In other words, self-efficacy positively affects performance for specific kinds of things, and improving performance in turn builds self-confidence, which in turn creates a mind-set for trying new things — new things that are opportunities for developing self-efficacy in a new area, and the cycle starts again.

Assessing your current level of self-efficacy in a variety of situations can help you identify areas for personal growth.

Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy can help you begin to evaluate your abilities. According to Bandura, there are four sources of self-efficacy:

1. Mastery experiences – things you have succeeded at in the past.
2. Vicarious experiences – seeing people who are similar to you succeed.
3. Social persuasion – hearing from others that you’re capable.
4. Emotional status – staying positive, and managing stress.

Three of these areas are within our own control.

Mastery Experiences – you can create more of these by:

• Connecting your success to your efforts; what did you do specifically that made a difference?
• Thinking positively, optimistically
• Setting SMART goals
• Creating a motivating environment and working on perseverance and determination

• Asking for or seeking assignments that will be challenging, but involve skills in which you have high levels of self-efficacy
• Assessing your skills and abilities often
• Developing decision making skills and create higher levels of confidence and satisfaction in the choices you make

Observe Others

It’s interesting that Bandura discovered that observing others’ success improves your belief in yourself when they are people whom you view as similar to you. The more alike you think you are, the greater the influence.  (The opposite can also happen . . .your confidence may decline if you see others working harder and harder and failing to achieve the desired results, particularly if you think you are a similar person.)

This is why tips like the following are so important:

• Observing others and keeping mental or actual notes about things that seem to be good habits
• Networking and interacting with accomplished people (e.g. your Phi Theta Kappa chapter!)
• Asking questions and developing mentoring relationships, especially with people who have similar backgrounds to yours

Emotional Status

If you learn to handle stress, you can build tenacity and an ability to persevere.  Managing stress also contributes to optimism and energy:  if learn to handle stress (build self-efficacy in this area), you believe you can handle anything and everything that might happen.

[Monika Byrd, March 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.

Literature is powerful in two ways.  First, while the setting or perspective may be new or different, literature resonates with us when someone has put something of our own experience into words; we can identify and empathize with the characters.  Second, literature expands our horizons when someone brings an experience to us that we cannot otherwise have.   These are also successful ways to develop as leaders — reflecting on experiences we have had and learning from them, and thinking and preparing for experiences we have not had and/or learning from the experiences of others.

Accessing this power of literature for leadership development, or any kind of development for that matter (as a thinker, an analyst, a friend, a professional, etc.), requires two broad steps.  Receiving, or understanding something of what the author wants to convey and how he/she conveys it is important for determining the theme of the work.  Attention to many things about a work of literature can help an individual or group “get better reception” and reflect on the theme:  characters, setting, point of view, language, imagery. Sending, or describing what you think of the theme, how it relates to your experience, to other things you have read, and then further describing any ways you can use these opinions, connections, and insights to help you in thought or action is the second big step for true development.

By now, you may be wondering about the title of this article, “Going to the Dogs.”  Many of you may remember reading Jack London’s Call of the Wild as a young person.  The story of Buck, the St. Bernard and Scottish sheep dog mixed breed from California, forced into service as a sled dog in the Yukon during the gold rush, on the surface is a beautifully written  journey of transformation to the wild, but it is also an example of literature that is powerful for leadership development.   If you remember the story, consider the following questions to expand what you received  from the story and send for use on your own leadership journey.  (If you never read it or don’t remember it well, it is less than 100 pages and this makes a great leadership development exercise!)

• What does London say makes Buck fit to lead?
• Why do you think London has picked these traits, characteristics, and skills?
• Did Buck learn these things or was he born with them?
• How does Buck overcome adversity?
• How is Buck a “change agent”?

How are the relationships in the story different when trust is present?

• Are there different levels of trust possible?  What makes them different?
• Why does Buck’s leadership produce exceptional results compared to Spitz’s?

In a very literal sense, Buck is not the leader at all because he has owners or masters.  But consider a specific philosophy of leadership – Servant-leadership – which states that people who choose to serve first, and then lead as a way of expanding service to individuals and institutions, are servant-leaders.  Servant-leaders may or may not hold formal leadership positions.  Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and ethical use of power and empowerment.

• How does this relate to Buck?  do you think he is serving Francois and Perrault by choice and desire and leads as a way of expanding that service?
• Does Buck foster collaboration, trust, and ethical use of power?  In what ways?

And then the big question:

• What are the lessons and insights for humans in the answers to these questions?

[Monika Byrd, March 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.

Discussion is characterized by the presentation of ideas, options, or opinions.  The participants present and debate the merits of various ideas, options, or opinions in direct ways, and they can clash and bang and bounce around — as in “percussion” or “concussion” — words which have similar roots.  Discussions often have a purpose to reach a decision, an agreement, or consensus.

Dialogue, however, doesn’t have the same purpose or outcome.  The word “dialogue” comes from the Greek words for a two-way story, a story that grows and develops as people explore it’s meaning.  In fact, leadership theorist Peter Senge defines dialogue as “the flow of meaning through a group.”  The flow can change, alter course, increase or decrease in speed and/or volume as it passes through the group.   Participants in a dialogue are influenced and change, not just by what they hear, but because in a real dialogue they realize that what they say is influencing others too.   In a dialogue, the participants intend to explore and create or enhance understanding, so there is no guarantee, nor often any intention to reach any kind of decision, agreement, or consensus, but what often emerges is a shared purpose and sense of meaning for the participants.  The real magic is that dialogue, more than discussion, deepens meaning and understanding for people, and deeper meaning means greater engagement.

A real-life illustration of the power of dialogue to create meaning and understanding and thus greater engagement is the “community prosecutors” program started by U.S. Attorney General General Eric Holder when he was U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C.  The initiative assigns federal prosecutors to specific neighborhoods.  They work regularly in their assigned communities, not out of their offices,  to build relationships with members of the community — parents, children, teachers, police, gang members, potential witnesses — everyone.  The prosecutors gain valuable information and are more successful in their cases from being more fully engaged in the community and the community members understand the prosecutorial role to better the community by being more fully engaged in the process.  The current U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeff Taylor says, “The community prosecution effort reflects a profound understanding that prosecutors are servants of the community, and that we’re only effective in our job if we have the support of the community we serve.”  Read or listen to the story on National Public Radio.

Do you have a project that would benefit from meaningful dialogue to better engage people?  Here are some dialogue starters you can ask each person in the group to answer:

• Why are we doing this?
• What’s the loftiest, most awesome outcome for this project?
• Can anyone share a story about someone who we have or will impact with this project?

Sources:  Petzinger Jr., Thomas.  The New Pioneers:  The Men and Women Who are Transforming the Workplace and Marketplace.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1999.

Shapiro, Ari.  “Holder’s Prosecution Program a Model for Justice?”  National Public Radio, February 18, 2009.

This leadership brief is a companion to two other articles on this website, Taking Time to Think, which reprints “Thought Busters” by John C. Maxwell, and Taking Time to Research.

[Monika Byrd, February 2009]]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.

>actively ask questions to surface new ideas, knowledge, and options

> frequently debate competing ideas

> maintain psychological safety (support, respect, trust, help, permit experimentation and failure or errors)

> analyze mistakes to determine how to make improvements

> welcome feedback — both positive and negative

> assess the team dynamics and examine how they are working together

> develop plans for remediating skills deficits

> manage and record the knowledge the team gains so that it can be disseminated and/or reported.

When teams use an action/reflection cycle not only is team’s work likely to produce better results on a project, but future projects benefit too, whether projects of the same team or if the team members become members of new teams.

Source:  Lindoerfer, Dennis.  “Learning Mode:  Adapting and Innovating is Crucial for Teams.”  Leadership in Action, v.28,  n.3 July/August 2008.  Greensboro, NC:  Center for Creative Leadership.

[Monika Byrd, February 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development, Honors Program Department.

It’s certain that many, if not most of you spent some time in front of the television or online to watch the inauguration of the United States’ 44th President, Barack Obama.  Regardless of your political perspective on the events, as an existing or emerging leader you can use the events of Tuesday, January 20, 2009, and the days and weeks ahead as unique learning opportunities.

This half-meter resolution image of the United States Capitol, Washington D.C. was collected by the GeoEye-1 satellite on Jan. 20, 2009 to commemorate the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. Satellite image by GeoEye, Courtesy of GeoEye. http://www.geoeye.com/CorpSite/gallery/detail.aspx?iid=220&gid=1. [Click to see enlarged photo.]

• President Obama is widely recognized as a gifted speaker.  Watch or re-watch the inaugural speech with attention to details about his delivery.  How does he deliver those parts of the speech intended to persuade?  Is there a special way that he invokes history and tradition?  Is there a difference when he is speaking about visionary, future-oriented calls to action?
• Find a transcription of the speech and read it.  Closely consider the organization, the language, the length of the sentences and phrasing and how they affect the pace.  While it is President Obama’s speech, there were highly-skilled, professional speech writers, historians, and statesmen who assisted, and there are lessons for us all regardless of party or heritage or country.
• President Obama is starting a new role.  How did he prepare for it?  There was a whirlwind of activity during the transition period and taking time to prepare for new roles is essential.  There were many different kinds of things were part of the transition:  briefing, interviewing and identifying team members, planning — are there other things that prepared President Obama for the role he took on this week and are they the kinds of things that you can do when you have a new role, a new job, a new position, a new team you are joining?
• Continue to pay attention during the coming weeks.  How does President Obama step into his new role?  How does he create and build momentum?  How does he deal with delays or obstacles?  How does he deal with challenges?  How does he support, recognize, and thank team members?  How does he balance his personal and professional time?  How does he enlist support for change?  While your leadership role doesn’t have the responsibilities or the magnitude of President Obama’s, his leadership example — those things at which he excels and even those things which may be missteps — can provide opportunities for reflection and for assessment of your own leadership.

These have been and will be historic days and they can also be days in which we all can develop as leaders to participate in and contribute to history and be much more than spectators.   The time you spend watching can be time well-spent with a little added reflection and commitment to learn and grow.

[Monika Byrd, January 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.

As for other meetings, preparation is essential for these one-person meetings.  A Leadership Journal is ideal preparation for meetings with yourself.  Keeping a notebook handy or an open file on your computer to jot down notes about “critical incidents” — discussions, opportunities to contribute, conflicts, feedback you received, observations of others — is your preparation.  During the meeting, you can review these notes and consider what happened and what your action or reaction was, what went well or not so well, and ideas for what you could have done differently.  Keep notes during the meeting too, so that you can refer to your new ideas.

Corkindale has other tips and guidelines:

• schedule the meetings at “peak” times, not at the end of the week or on the weekend when it would be easier to skip or take it less seriously
• consider the past week or month, but also use the Journal and your meetings to consider your big goals and your future so they are always “in view” as you consider how you want to improve the present
• reflect and review successes as closely as the things that didn’t go so well;  it will build confidence and provide motivation or resilience
• never cancel or move your meeting with yourself;  it is not a luxury or an extra that can be shifted in the face of other urgent priorities, but an important effort that can be transformational.

Source:  Corkindale, Gill.  “A New Year’s Resolution:  Schedule Regular Meetings with Yourself.”  Letter from London Harvard Business Blog.  January 5, 2009.

[Monika Byrd, January 2009]

Questions or Comments about Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Briefs may be directed to Monika Byrd, Dean of Leadership Development for the Honors Program Department.