Marcy Shankman and Scott Allen would like to personally invite you to learn more about this valuable student leadership model in a live interactive online session on Thursday, June 9th, as part of The Jossey-Bass Student Leadership Development 101 Online Series.

The festivities begin on May 26th – feel free to join us for the entire series or for a selection of sessions at your own choosing, depending on your unique interests and needs.  In the kick-off session, you will hear from the authors and editors of the new Handbook for Student Leadership Development, Second Edition (including Susan Komives) about how foundations of leadership theory and research can lead to a process of effective program design and delivery.   The remaining sessions will cover the other major student leadership development models offered by Jossey-Bass.

The ability to effectivily develop trusting relationships is at the core of effective leadership. However, it can also be extremely difficult when we do not naturally “click” with certain individuals. Leadership Scholar Bernard Bass said it this way, “Interpersonal competence is fundamental to successful and effective leadership. What may be involved are the ability to communicate, the willingness and ability to promote individual relationships with others, authenticity, caring, the ability to handle conflict, and insight and empathy” (p. 122). Strong relationships open the door to unfiltered and authentic feedback which is another lifeline for any leader. After all, if leaders close themselves off from feedback from others, they are essentially leading in the dark. In his book, The Courageous Follower, Chaleff suggests that “The key to personal balance for leaders is the quality of their relationship with followers. Honest, open relationships will provide a steady stream of uncensored feedback. It is only through this feedback that leaders can accurately perceive and modulate their behaviors, policies and strategies” (p. 23). We have all worked with (and for) an individual who stuggled to develop relationships and/or closed themsleves off from authentic relationships and unfiltered feedback.

I close with two questions that are common sense, but not necessarily common practice…

1) Is your life filled with authentic relationships and are you known as an individual who is caring, empathetic and interested in others?

2) Are you known as someone open to feedback?

Whether its Emotionally Intelligent Leadership or Transformational Leadership, one’s mind naturally moves from the “what” of the theory to the “how” of development. I am a big fan of K. Anders Ericsson and enjoy thinking about how his work applies to the previous statement. I came across the following quote in his edited book, The Road to Excellence: The Aquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports and Games.

“Based on a review of a century of laboratory studies of learning and skills acquisition, Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Romer (1993) concluded that the most effective learning requires a well defined task with an appropriate difficulty level for the particular individual, informative feedback, and opportunities for repetition and corrections of errors. When all these elements are present they used the term deliberate practice to characterize training activities” (p. 21).

Deliberate practice. I guess I am struck by the lack of deliberate practice built into most leadership development training. Do you agree?Can you think of a program that incorporates long-term, consistent and well-conceived deliberate practice with each of the above mentioned ingredients?

After all, it seems one could secure opportunities for deliberate practice in numerous venues – gymnastics, cooking, counseling psychology…Where does this exist for leadership development? Who is doing it right? I would love to hear your thoughts…SJA

The distinction between these abilities and personality traits is sometimes subtle, but it can be drawn. For example, one can be optimistic simply because one has a cheerful disposition (which requires no intelligence of any kind); or one may understand that one can create an optimistic assessment by deliberately calling to mind the chances of success or by summoning social support from others. This process of manipulating one’s own emotional state requires a certain degree of psychological mindedness that Mayer and his colleagues deem a form of intelligence. (Handbook of Emotional Intelligence, p. 276)

Ultimately, our approach with EIL has been integrative by nature. We have found great use in the work of Ernest Boyer and would guess that it’s likely all of the above. That in fact, EI, on some level, is all three vs. one or another. What do you think?…SJA

How many managers have time to plow through big books of leadership development? None! And they’ll never need to with this slender book of 50 simple yet powerful ideas. “The Little Book of Leadership Development” goes straight to the heart of great leadership. Free of complicated theories, it focuses on what really works to get people motivated, working effectively, and acting as leaders themselves. The book delivers streamlined instructions on modeling behaviors, sharing information, building accountability, stretching teams, providing feedback, and 45 other practical strategies. Readers will be able to design a system of development tailored to their team and organization. Managers with the ability to self-reflect and a willingness to implement these positive, powerful ideas will see quick improvements in communication, efficiency, morale, and every other measure that points to a committed team of emerging leaders.

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