Leadership Conference - March 27, 2011
Our Annual Leadership Conference took place on Sunday, March 27, 2011. Like previous years we had speakers from the Teleos Leadership Institute (www.teleosleaders.com). Mrs. Christina Yerkes, Consultant and Mrs. Laura Carrick, Senior Consultant did an excellent job explaining the importance of becoming a succesful leader.
The presenters started with an Opening Exercise (Self-Assessment Questionnaire) to determine the type of leader we are, and also got the students actively involved when the participants had to complete and act out a series of interactive exercises.
Thank you Teleos and thank you students who participated!
A few notes on Leadership...
What is Leadership?
We can define “leadership” in many ways. These are the definitions of Leadership that make sense to me. Leadership is vision, knowledge, drive, confidence, optimism, openness, humanity, and caring. It is direction and guidance that inspires dedication, confidence, and achievement. Leadership is required to inspire and bring out the best in people, and to give them the courage to survive the tough times.
Leadership is a process by which a person influences and motivates others to accomplish an objective, and directs an organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent (unified, connected, and harmonious). We could define leadership as a quality that an individual possesses - an ability to guide or direct others to achieve a common goal. Leadership is considered a "management skill;" but is more than a management skill.
"Leadership is influencing people - by providing purpose, direction, and motivation - while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization."
A leader must inspire others. A leader should instill passion and direction to an individual or group of individuals, using psychology to affect that group either consciously or subconsciously. So, leadership is the ability to inspire, empower, and instill passion in others; the ability to guide and direct (lead) others; the ability to motivate others toward a common goal. Leaders get results. They are attuned to others as they lead them toward a meaningful and better future. The question is: How do we accomplish this? How can we become great leaders?
The book “Primal Leadership” mentions that: “Great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and inspire the best in us. When we try to explain why they are so effective, we speak of strategy, vision, or powerful ideas. But the reality is much more primal: Great leadership works through the emotions.”
We know that we need to develop certain skills to become an effective and successful leader. Yes, we need to have vision, be confident, responsible and disciplined, be a good listener, manage our time efficiently, make important decisions, display integrity, take risks, build teams, communicate effectively, help others, etc.; but we also have to take in consideration the fact that our moods and attitudes greatly affect the emotions of the people around us. We basically have the power to encourage or discourage others. We can set a positive or negative tone in our organization – this tone will affect the productivity and efficiency of those we lead. A good leader, of course, “encourages” and “inspires.” It’s essential to radiate passion, motivation, excitement, love and positive emotions if we want to inspire others, because a good leader does that: “inspires” others and learns to become “emotionally intelligent” in order to accomplish his/her goals. Even after developing our own leadership style, we have to take in consideration this powerful skill – “emotional intelligence.” (Pay attention to these words: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – because today we will be focusing on this – we want to teach you to become “emotionally intelligent” individuals, “emotionally intelligent” leaders). Richard Levin, President of Yale University stated: “True leadership means drawing the best out of others and inspiring them toward a worthy goal.” We have to learn to take the initiative within an organization to inspire, motivate and get the best out of others to accomplish great things with “emotional intelligence.” That is the challenge!
In learning to become “emotionally intelligent” leaders (emotional intelligent leaders are successful leaders!) we have to become aware of our weaknesses and our strengths, and we have to learn to manage our moods and the moods of our followers; but mood is not all that matters. Our actions are critical too, and mood and actions together must resonate with the organization and with reality. Yes, leaders have to conquer many challenges; but taken as a whole the message is clear: “Emotional Leadership” is the spark that ignites a company’s or organization’s performance. You can learn to apply these lessons here in school when you lead your Club or Organization members and in the future in your workplace, even in your family life.
As leaders we have to find effective ways to understand and improve the way we handle our own and other people’s emotions. We have to learn to communicate effectively, and to motivate, guide and instill passion in others by influencing their emotions in positive ways, in order to provoke enthusiasm, motivation, and passion in them, so that they can give us their best performance, and be always challenged to do their best.
Remember Maya Angelou’s words: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
The presenters started with an Opening Exercise (Self-Assessment Questionnaire) to determine the type of leader we are, and also got the students actively involved when the participants had to complete and act out a series of interactive exercises.
Thank you Teleos and thank you students who participated!
A few notes on Leadership...
What is Leadership?
We can define “leadership” in many ways. These are the definitions of Leadership that make sense to me. Leadership is vision, knowledge, drive, confidence, optimism, openness, humanity, and caring. It is direction and guidance that inspires dedication, confidence, and achievement. Leadership is required to inspire and bring out the best in people, and to give them the courage to survive the tough times.
Leadership is a process by which a person influences and motivates others to accomplish an objective, and directs an organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent (unified, connected, and harmonious). We could define leadership as a quality that an individual possesses - an ability to guide or direct others to achieve a common goal. Leadership is considered a "management skill;" but is more than a management skill.
"Leadership is influencing people - by providing purpose, direction, and motivation - while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization."
A leader must inspire others. A leader should instill passion and direction to an individual or group of individuals, using psychology to affect that group either consciously or subconsciously. So, leadership is the ability to inspire, empower, and instill passion in others; the ability to guide and direct (lead) others; the ability to motivate others toward a common goal. Leaders get results. They are attuned to others as they lead them toward a meaningful and better future. The question is: How do we accomplish this? How can we become great leaders?
The book “Primal Leadership” mentions that: “Great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and inspire the best in us. When we try to explain why they are so effective, we speak of strategy, vision, or powerful ideas. But the reality is much more primal: Great leadership works through the emotions.”
We know that we need to develop certain skills to become an effective and successful leader. Yes, we need to have vision, be confident, responsible and disciplined, be a good listener, manage our time efficiently, make important decisions, display integrity, take risks, build teams, communicate effectively, help others, etc.; but we also have to take in consideration the fact that our moods and attitudes greatly affect the emotions of the people around us. We basically have the power to encourage or discourage others. We can set a positive or negative tone in our organization – this tone will affect the productivity and efficiency of those we lead. A good leader, of course, “encourages” and “inspires.” It’s essential to radiate passion, motivation, excitement, love and positive emotions if we want to inspire others, because a good leader does that: “inspires” others and learns to become “emotionally intelligent” in order to accomplish his/her goals. Even after developing our own leadership style, we have to take in consideration this powerful skill – “emotional intelligence.” (Pay attention to these words: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – because today we will be focusing on this – we want to teach you to become “emotionally intelligent” individuals, “emotionally intelligent” leaders). Richard Levin, President of Yale University stated: “True leadership means drawing the best out of others and inspiring them toward a worthy goal.” We have to learn to take the initiative within an organization to inspire, motivate and get the best out of others to accomplish great things with “emotional intelligence.” That is the challenge!
In learning to become “emotionally intelligent” leaders (emotional intelligent leaders are successful leaders!) we have to become aware of our weaknesses and our strengths, and we have to learn to manage our moods and the moods of our followers; but mood is not all that matters. Our actions are critical too, and mood and actions together must resonate with the organization and with reality. Yes, leaders have to conquer many challenges; but taken as a whole the message is clear: “Emotional Leadership” is the spark that ignites a company’s or organization’s performance. You can learn to apply these lessons here in school when you lead your Club or Organization members and in the future in your workplace, even in your family life.
As leaders we have to find effective ways to understand and improve the way we handle our own and other people’s emotions. We have to learn to communicate effectively, and to motivate, guide and instill passion in others by influencing their emotions in positive ways, in order to provoke enthusiasm, motivation, and passion in them, so that they can give us their best performance, and be always challenged to do their best.
Remember Maya Angelou’s words: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
posted by Karol B. Feld at
7:09 AM
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