Yeah Yeah Lead!

There’s nothing more fun than people watching. I’ve realized I spend a lot of time do it, from the times when I cross the oval, to the times (the very few times) that I get distracted in class, to the times when I am sitting in Thompson library and people walk up and down the stairs. It’s pretty obvious that you can learn a lot from observing people, but the guidelines for observing student organizations from Emotionally Intelligent Leadership was very helpful in honing down what I should be looking for.

                The organization that I plan to do my project on doesn’t hold regular conventional meetings, so I observed an executive board meeting for another organization that I used to be involved in as a general member. This organization is interesting because it is an umbrella organization for South Asian organizations. In other words it helps other South Asian organizations, by helping organize an event or moderating between two conflicting organizations for example. This made the meeting very interesting because they seemed extremely focused on this purpose, but I will touch on that more later.

                The meeting was held in the organization’s office in the csls, and all of the members sat around a table in their room. There were the typical board members that you would expect from an organization (president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, etc.) but one of the past presidents who had helped found the organization but has now graduated also came. I asked one of the members after the meeting, and he actually comes to all of the meetings. So though there is a president to the organization it was pretty hard to figure out who was actually running the meeting. The president would bring up a topic from the agenda and the board would discuss it, and then the former president would then give his thoughts on the topic and it would be discussed again. The current president seemed pretty relieved that the old president was there though, because he did provide a lot of insight from his experience.  The former president did put a lot of effort into emphasizing that the reason that he was there was just to provide his thoughts, and that the decisions made were entirely up to the board and the new president, though for the most part they followed his recommendations.

                Much of what they discussed was about the purpose of the organization. As an umbrella organization it seemed as though they were trying to define what they actually do and stick to that purpose. It was clear that they help other South Asian groups (which they wanted to stress by saying that the organizations were actually above them) but they didn’t really know what guidelines they would follow when they provided help. That’s where the old president seemed to be very useful, because he had an experience for almost every instance that they could think of. By the end of the meeting the consensus seemed as though they would take each case that they would provide help as an individual and do what they could for that specific organization or issue. They would then gauge their success based on the event thrown.

                This organization does not throw events of its own, so they have a very small member base. They are in the process of selecting freshmen representatives so they talked about why they have such a small group. They only wanted people that would want to be very involved, so there would be a lack of apathy among the group. And it appeared to be that way. Everyone in the meeting was engaged and interested in what was going on, and everyone took the purpose of the group seriously. Everyone in the group was involved in other South Asian organizations, so they all had different points to make and had different views which at times led to a bit of tension but usually made the discussion worthwhile.

                I think that the organization is doing a good job of helping South Asian organizations. They have been approached or have offered help to many small and new organizations, which is right along the lines of what they wanted to do. The one concern that I had about how well the organization is doing is that they seemed skeptical of some of the bigger organizations that fall “above” their umbrella so there seemed to be almost a sense of competition between all of the groups. Other than that though I would say they are right on track with what they wanted to do.

                Ohio State is huge. And I mean 56,064 undergraduate students huge. We have all heard about how easy it is to get lost among the crowds and classes, but with all of the students involved even being a member of an organization most likely isn’t enough to keep you out of the dark. Sometimes whole organizations become pushed back just because of the sheer amount of groups on campus. I think a few insights on how to solve this problem as a leader can be found in the student development theories that we read about. What struck me about the theories was the focus on the individual, and how he is unique.

                This concept of the individual is a two way street for leaders. Not only do they have to recognize their own development (who wants to follow a leader who doesn’t keep growing?) but they should see their own organization as an individual and focus on its development, too. I talked about this a little in my last post, but I am a firm believer that an organization should have shared goals and that the leader should follow what the organization is looking to do.

                The article on shared visions by Marty Jacobs had a lot of thoughts on how to get to this goals, and I think that Marty Jacobs hit the nail on the head when he said, “Without a shared vision, the force of the status quo will prevail in an organization.” In other words, an organization without a vision will just go with the flow, and won’t develop into something amazing. I agree with him when he says that this vision is more or less a collection of the personal visions of each member, which also calls into play the development of each member so that they all have something worth sharing.  

                Getting everyone’s ideas incorporated into this vision is maybe the most motivating thing a group can do, because everyone feels incorporated into the group and feels that personal connection. In the same article by Marty Jacobs he talks about the differences between compliance and commitment, and the subtlety between them. A committed, developing group is what makes the group great.

                So how do you get this way?

                That’s where student development theory comes in. One concept that I saw over and over again in this article is that students must be considered as unique individuals, along with the theory that a student’s environment and personal motivation are keys to their success. I thought that it was interesting that many years ago education was personalized and not only taught what we might consider an education today along with values. Then there was a shift to a more “large group” feeling, and now we are in a sort of mix of the two. Kind of like a best of both worlds situation. There group feeling is provided by the size of the university, and all of the opportunities that come from that. Though as the article states, the size of the university can also decrease development with redundancy.

                But the personalization? That’s where we come in. As leaders and members of SLA I think that we can really use the ideas of student development theory in facilitations. I’ve noticed that facilitations seem to be at their best when I am leading them in a unbiased manner, and I think that the thoughts given by the article about facilitations brings together a lot of ideas that will really help me become a better facilitator. What I wanted to get at though is how I’ve noticed that once things get going in a facilitation and I take a step back, that’s when the growth really occurs.

                Evans says it best when he states, “Development is not simply a maturation process, but requires stimulation through challenge and support.” The experiential learning cycle (which is that people learn best through experience and analyzing what had happened for themselves) is an important aspect of development, because it is how you develop.

                So as a facilitator (and leader) I would take a step back and let your organization develop and experience for itself, while you do the same for yourself.

When I thought about my leadership lens, I first began to think what makes a good leader:

I think that a leader whose purpose is to pursue their own personal agenda will end up like a party host without any guests. The purpose of a leader is not to impose their own ideas, but instead to lead to the group’s goals. That is why I believe that the first step that every leader should take is to open their eyes and ears and become aware to their companions. To get ahead, they need to get behind their group. But, once the group figures out what they want to do it’s up to the leader to lead the charge. When it comes to action a leader should be ahead of the group. Everyone knows the basic traits of a leader: decisiveness, resourcefulness, and creativity just to name a few.  I never knew what those meant until I had to experience the need for them myself, though.

The most influential experience I’ve had was in the past two years, as the leader of the dance team Genesis. Leading the team was the first time that I was really at the top of the leadership food chain; there was no advisor and no past leaders to tell me what to do. It’s pretty apparent that the reason I’m all about the leader being a part of the group has come from this, because a dance team would get booed off of the stage if it were a one-man show. The first moment that I realized that I was evolving as a leader was in the first few weeks, when I was teaching the group my choreography. I had never taught in such an intensive way before and it made me realize that patience and an open mind would take me miles. At first I would be so offended at the thought of changing a dance step, but I soon learned that by alienating the team I would alienate any chance I had of winning. Soon enough I had become best friends with everyone on the team and every performance and competition was a win to us.

Hopefully I will continue to grow as a leader. Though I talked about what I currently think makes a great leader, I believe that there is no specific formula for the perfect leader. It's one of those things that depends on the situation. Even so, I plan on getting as close as I can to being the best leader I can be.