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The LEAP
leadership team consists of a core group of about 35 individuals
representing OSU personnel
in administrative, teaching, research, extension, and classified
positions. Since July
1998 members of this group have been involved in a series of
team-promoted learning activities including meetings, conversations
with invited speakers, workshops, and conferences, as well as
self-selected learning activities of their own choosing.
Team
learning has been formally assessed twice.
In an exercise designed for a February 1999
meeting, individuals (n
= 27) identified 1-3 ideas and concepts they felt reflected “the
most important or meaningful things” they had learned about
leadership. These items were then refined in small groups where
individuals considered feedback from group members, then re-worked the
items before they were reported to the group-at-large.
In September 1999 team members (n = 31) completed a written
survey focusing on two issues: What
learning activities have you been involved in? and What did you learn
(insights gained, behavior or attitudes changed, challenges
identified)?
Overall, 70%
of the team members reported learning “a great deal” or “a
substantial amount” about leadership since the project began.
Time spent on learning activities ranged from 10 hours to 200+,
with an average of 79 hours per individual reporting.
Key elements
of team learning, emerging from compiling and synthesizing the
individual responses from both assessments, appear below in three
categories. Each item
listed represents responses expressed by five or more team members.
Defining
Aspects of Leadership
·
Leadership
involves people and relationships,
power and empowerment, individual commitment and shared
responsibility.
·
Effective
leadership is culturally defined (by ethnicity, race, gender, and
organizational character).
·
Effective
leadership is characterized by openness, adaptability, courage, and
integrity.
·
Trust,
honor, dignity, and ethical behavior are important aspects of
leadership integrity.
·
Open
communication and equal access to information (no classism) are
important issues in leadership development.
·
Leadership
is not limited by position or title.
·
Leadership
does not mean having all the answers and it sometimes means taking
risks and making mistakes.
·
Collective
or collaborative leadership offers a promising contemporary model for
dealing with institutional issues.
Approaches
to Learning About Leadership
·
An important
factor in learning to lead in an organization is understanding the
organizational culture.
·
Learning
about leadership means meeting people where they are.
·
A safe,
supportive environment and open, caring relationships are critical
components of a leadership learning experience.
·
Self-awareness,
self-reflection, and self-disclosure can enhance learning about and
practicing leadership.
·
Modeling and
conversation skills, as well as storytelling and other applications of
the arts, can be powerful tools in learning about leadership.
Challenges
to Developing a Leadership Program
·
Finding a
focus for the learning experience.
·
Generating
interest in participating (a lot of people think they already know
about leadership and don’t need to study it).
·
Offering a
wide range of activities and/or applications that people can use to
become engaged.
·
Dealing with
powerful people not interested in changing.
·
Sustaining
energy, resources, and learning as the program progresses.
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