With an ongoing crisis of leadership plaguing the current corporate workplace, authentic leadership from America’s next generation of managers and senior level leaders is critical. The source for a new generation of leaders with a refreshing sense of values, ethics and innovation will not surprisingly be chosen from America’s colleges and universities. But will this new collection of emerging leaders be cut from the same cloth of power, money and politics, or will they be groomed by integrity, service and accountability in order to effectively lead tomorrow’s workforce. It all depends on how they are learning, developing and practicing leadership in colleges and universities today.
Today’s higher education institutions must emphasize to students that leadership is a process, not a title or simply possessing authority. They must also understand the four stages of the student leadership development process and how they can cultivate an environment where students can become interested in campus leadership opportunities.
The Four Stages of Student Leadership Development:
Stage 1: The Limited Leader
Students in this stage are typically first year students and become briefly exposed to leadership during their first year experience. Campus life administrators must recognize that these students typically believe one of the two myths regarding leadership. Unfortunately, many first year students believe the myth that they do not have the qualities and skills to become leaders and are uncertain leadership can be learned. Therefore, their interest in leadership decreases and they mistakenly limit their leadership potential. It is not surprising that roughly 46% of student graduates never serve in a positional leadership role while in college, according to the MSL Study on Leadership.
Another myth for many students is that they can lead effectively based on their personality, popularity or charisma without learning various styles and principles of leadership. These type of students are eager to occupy leadership positions on campus to decorate their resume, but find their techniques and ideas for organizing other students, events and organizations ineffective and the results of low participation frustrating.
What can campus life administrators do to help?
Help students recognize that leadership can be learned and developed by making available numerous and diverse opportunities, including single event or long-term leadership awareness programs, seminars and workshops that will inspire students and attract them to the concept of leadership. We must make students aware that the most widely accepted leadership theory today on how people become leaders is that people choose to be leaders and that leadership can be learned.
Stage 2: The Learned Leader
In this stage, students are interested in leadership and attend short or long-term leadership programs, seminars and workshops that further cultivate their interest in leadership and equip them with ideas and techniques to help them become effective leaders.
What can campus life administrators do to help?
Help students by providing them access to more than one idea or concept of leadership (e.g. servant leadership). Students in this stage should become immersed in leadership principles, theories, ideas and global truths. Leadership programs and seminars should be careful to not overwhelm students in the beginning, but should be engaging, interactive, practical and entertaining so that students will become even more interested in learning leadership.
Stage 3: The Experienced Leader
Students in this stage occupy roles where they can make a deliberate effort to think about the leadership principles and ideas they have learned and then have an opportunity to apply what they have learned.
What can campus life administrators do to help?
Students should be in roles where they can practice a variety of leadership principles and ideas. If students’ only opportunities are organizing student and community events they are only learning how to be effective organizers and serving the community. Other opportunities should include allowing students to create a vision, develop strategy, display integrity, make ethical decisions, show empathy etc… Based on the theory of Transformational Leadership and research of Dr. Bernard Bass, one of the ways people become leaders is through a crisis or important event, which causes a person to rise to the occasion, and brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person.
Campus life administrators must provide forums for students to discuss different views and diverse perspectives on social, economic and cultural issues. Students who occupy leadership positions must also be challenged to go outside of their comfort zone, struggle, and stretch beyond their current reality to understand how people grow and learn to innovate. Campus life administrators must be careful to help students and not handicap them, which means they should act as a resource and support system to encourage student leaders through the struggle. Also, additional workshops and seminars should follow up and support student leadership struggles and problems throughout the academic year, so students can reflect and reevaluate themselves as leaders.
Stage 4: The Leaderfied Leader
The students who reach this stage during college are truly exceptional. However, most students will only reach this stage after graduation while working as professionals in the workplace. A student in this stage has practiced and applied leadership principles and techniques with such repetition that basic leadership principles and ideas have become instinctive habits. A Leaderfied Leader also understands the importance of life-long learning, application and reflection.
What is it that makes certain people in a company or organization come together and accomplish extraordinary things? How can a team of people who may only be average performers individually, produce remarkable results when they work together? How do they consistently exceed expectations every year and have the audacity to set even higher goals, all while having fun as they work?
Throughout my training experiences and discussions with thousands of supervisors, managers, directors and senior executives, I have realized that there are four things these workplace winners have in common: Shared Purpose, Open Communication, Trust and an Innovative Mentality.
Some organizations are completely blind to the fact that they don’t have teams, they have groups. The main difference between a group and a team is that a group is just a collection of individuals who are only looking out for their self interest. They only care about their individual goals, promotion, salary etc.. A team consists of individuals who understand that none of us is greater than all of us and they genuinely care about each other and know they can only grow and win, when they help their team members grow and win.
The Fabulous Four Qualities listed below will help your team grow to the next level and eventually become a top performing team:
1. Shared Purpose:
- Every team member knows the vision, mission, goals of the team and the overall organization.
- Each team member knows why their work, tasks, duties and contribution matters, and how it impacts the entire team and organization.
- Each team member knows their role, responsibilities, what they’re accountable for, and no matter how small their role, it is equally celebrated, valued and respected by the team.
2. Open Communication:
- Each team member feels as though they can freely share ideas, opinions and potential solutions to the team without fear or being ridiculed.
- High performing teams have feedback forums (meetings, social gatherings etc…) where feedback on performance, ideas, needs for assistance are communicated.
3. Trust:
- High performing teams consistently do what they say, and they hold every team member accountable to the same standard.
- Each team member shares personal interest and goals. (They become like extended family)
4. Innovative Mentality:
- Each team member has an innovative mentality, which means they relentlessly see or do things in a new or more effective way.
- Top performing teams have no comfort zone. Members of teams with comfort zones say things such as “if ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Top performing teams understand that a comfort zone in today’s rapidly changing economy means laid-off, outsourced or downsized. Instead, their mentality is “if ain’t broke don’t fix it, unless you can make it better!”
- Top performing teams have innovative sessions, where they meet frequently to discuss how to improve the product, service, programs, reports, equipment, etc… They dedicate entire meetings to just thinking about better methods and improving things.
It’s no secret that top performing teams go from ordinary to extraordinary by doing certain things and having specific qualities. It may take some time, but your team can accomplish it.
In part 2, we will discuss the particular phases of team development and what leaders must do to make sure their team successfully graduates from each phase.
Grind for Greatness!
According to a recent study by the Society For Human Resource Management, roughly 43% of employers across the U.S. rated recent university and college graduates as deficient in leadership, which was defined as the ability to “leverage the strengths of others to achieve common goals and use interpersonal skills to coach and develop others.” In addition, a survey by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that only 39% of recent college graduates feel that college prepared them extremely or very well for success in today’s rapidly changing global economy.
How can universities and colleges enhance their existing leadership programs to assure students are globally prepared, and become leaders in the workplace and their communities after graduation? There are three specific actions listed below to help facilitate post-student leadership success:
3 Ways to Help Students Become Successful Leaders After College:
1. Equip Students for Self-Leadership: Students must not only learn how to communicate and manage conflict with others, but more importantly how to manage change and internal conflict. As their often ideal, yet unrealistic expectations after graduation regarding jobs, salaries, and stability are threatened by reality, they can become paralyzed by the resulting emotions. Students need to develop emotional resiliency while being involved in their school’s leadership programs. We tell students to be servant leaders and lead from their hearts, but student leaders that encounter difficult and extreme changing circumstances often have unresolved conflicts in their hearts and leadership becomes an afterthought.
2. Expose Students to Various Leadership Styles: The vast majority of universities and colleges create or use leadership programs that embrace and emphasize the servant leadership style. While this style has many positive attributes and typically works well in an academic environment with other students, the situations and demographics of people involved are dramatically different after college and in the workplace. Students must be made aware of and know how to effectively apply other proven successful leadership styles (Coach, Sergeant, Visionary) depending on the situation and person involved. Student leaders must be able to accept that what they know about leadership may change as the dynamics of the workplace changes, and that sometimes it is better to follow first and lead later.
3. Explain the “Why” of Leadership: While being involved in student leadership programs, students must understand that leadership is not about head positions, titles or authority, it’s about actions. It is essential for students to understand why we need leaders, and why leaders must perform deliberate actions that inspire, display empathy, challenge, and develop people. As the global workplace endures a leadership crisis created by fraud and mistrust of senior level leaders and executives of billion dollar companies, student leaders must also absorb the forgotten fact that leadership is not just about doing things right, but doing the right things when no one is watching.
Click Here to Discuss Your Student Development Goals with James
According to a survey by the Conference Board, a global market research firm, most of today’s employees in the workplace dislike their jobs. In addition, a survey conducted by Right Management, a division of Manpower, illustrated that 60% of employees intend to leave their jobs when the economy improves. It’s no secret that the majority of today’s employees are unmotivated and disengaged in the workplace and their disengagement according to the Gallup organization costs employers roughly $300 billion annually.
What can organizations, managers and leaders do to create a workplace environment where employees are inspired to perform? Based on my experience of training thousands of supervisors, managers and senior level leaders across the country, I have concluded that workplace leaders must focus on being at least four things to their employees which display specific qualities that inspire, motivate, develop and empower employees to want to perform.
4 Things Leaders Must be to Bring the Best Out of Employees:
1. Be a Coach: A coach is one who teaches, develops and helps employees identify obstacles that prevent top performance. Coaching is about strategically and tactfully asking your employees the right questions so they can learn to ultimately see things for themselves. Asking questions guides a person’s thinking. For example, instead of solving your employees problems and just giving them answers, a coach will ask a series of questions that probe the employee to solve the problem. This takes time, but if deliberately practiced, the employee will soon get in the habit of asking himself or herself the same questions and will ultimately develop a problem solving mentality just like the manager or leader who acted as the coach. Coaches are also energetic, passionate and lead by example. The coaching style is very attractive to employees who become receptive to the coach’s suggestions of new ways of working to improve performance.
2. Be a Sergeant: A sergeant, just like a drill sergeant in the U.S. Army is one who pushes, challenges and transforms an individual to prepare them to succeed. As a sergeant, you must ultimately be ready to make decisions in times of crisis, emergencies and deadlines and stand by your decisions as your employees execute your demands without question. Keep in mind, many managers and leaders make the mistake of applying this style frequently, which results in employees who are only performing out of fear or they are intimidated by the manager or leader acting as the sergeant. While the manager or leader who frequently uses this style may still get results, he or she must understand that employees are more than likely only performing at half of their true capacity. They are indeed only performing just enough to keep from being fired. The sergeant must also knew when to apply pressure and stress to particular employees and teams so that they do not become too comfortable, complacent and content. The sergeant serves to remind them that in today’s competitive economy and workplace, there is no comfort zone!
3. Be an Encourager: An encourager is one who supports, empathizes and listens to employees who may be experiencing personal issues, low morale, burned out or simply frustrated at work. So many managers and leaders continue to fail to understand that they must connect with their employees on a personal level. They believe that employees should just do what they are paid to do and that it is not necessary to get to know them personally. This is one of the biggest mistakes managers and leaders make and what they continually fail to realize is that an employee’s personal issues will eventually impact their professional performance. You do not have to become best friends with your employees, but you should know their hobbies, interest, personal goals, and birthdays. Remember, people don’t care how much you know and they won’t work as hard for you, until they truly know how much you care about them.
4. Be a Leader: A leader is one who inspires people to pursue a greater purpose and ultimately a vision. Remember, the majority of employees in the workplace dislike their jobs and since they are doing something they dislike on average 40 hours per week (160 hours per month), of course they are going to get burned out, lose sight of the goals and the vision. Being a leader means you must be a source of inspiration for your employees. You must sense when morale is low and do something that revitalizes them. Mahatma Gandhi said “be the change you wish you see,” so if you want upbeat, take initiative type employees, it starts with you setting the pace for your team to adjust and run instead of walk.
If you are not passionate and energetic about the work of your team and the organization, why should they be? In professional sports, the players typically take on the mentality of the coach, and being a leader means living your vision and mission statement everyday with energy and reminding your employees that they are not just performing tasks and duties, but ultimately working for some greater purpose. Why do people volunteer for nonprofit organizations like Habitat for Humanity or Big Brothers Big Sisters? It’s because they receive invisible compensation called making a difference. If you act as a leader your employees will take on extra work without asking for extra pay because they understand their purpose. People will work for a paycheck, we know that, but people will also die for a cause, we know that as well.
Finally, it’s important to understand that none of the leadership styles above is better than the other, they all have their strengths and weaknesses. They key is learning when to apply the styles in specific situations and to specific employees. Stay focused and keep Grinding for Greatness!
According to Wikipedia, the phrase “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear” is a safety warning that is required to be engraved on passenger side mirrors of automobiles in the USA, Canada and Australia since the way the mirrors are designed makes objects appear smaller.
Since smaller-appearing objects seem farther away than they actually are, a driver might make a maneuver such as a lane change assuming an adjacent vehicle is a safe distance behind, when in fact it is actually closer. The warning serves as a reminder to the driver of this potential problem.
When we view our goals and dreams, we must understand that our mind is designed like a passenger side mirror which always wants to remind us of danger. The dangers of trying to go after our dreams, the dangers of losing, the dangers of ultimately failing.
When we view our current position and where we are in life, our success seems so distant, so far away that we don’t know how we will actually achieve it. And just as we are considering giving up or changing lanes to do something different, a different job, a different business, a different goal, a different dream, what if we only had something or someone to remind us that because of the way our mind designed, success in our mind’s mirror is closer than it appears.
Don’t you dare give up on your dream now, Grind for Greatness!