Leadership Response Week 1

I’ve never been one to believe that leadership is a quality/set of skills that can be taught; I always took it to be this intrinsic result of experience, a set of reasonable qualities that could only be achieved through self-awareness. However, this past weekend I had the opportunity to go to a clinic in Indianapolis for Drum Corps International’s 2011 Drum Major Seminar. Sounds geeky huh? Yeah, well it fundamentally changed the way I feel about leadership. Instead of this ambiguous idealistic image of what a “leader” should be, I attended presentation after presentation of what it means to be a DCI drum major. Now, a drum major is just one example of a strong leader and it doesn’t define what a leader is per se, but this weekend has illustrated very clearly to me that being a leader is just another job that simply entails possessing the right set of tools. This is a very similar mindset that the programs and universities Greenwald has researched take on.

Two of the most important qualities of a strong leader are effective listening and clear outward communication. To be able to listen and thoroughly understand what is being said is an underrated (in my opinion) skill of leaders. So many of us focus on the other direction of communication that we forget how to accurately assess a situation or question etc. Instead we’re so busy coming up with a great-looking answer that we lose sight of the problem/question that we set out to solve in the first place. That doesn’t mean that speaking to a mass of people isn’t important because it’s extremely important. To be able to prepare (in however little time we are given) and deliver a message in the most clear and concise fashion is one of a leader’s strongest influencing factors. And what is leadership if not positive influence?

In his article, Greenwald observes that leadership programs in universities such as the class we’re in have been growing in quality, quantity, and perceived credibility and essentially comments that this “leading” generation of young adults has the potential to succeed in more flexible ways than in the past simply because of the broad spectrum that the discipline applies to. Whether it be huge financial corporations under the control of one or a few strong managers, or (more likely for us) freelancing visual and performing artists, the qualities that are being stressed in the programs that Greenwald writes of can realistically benefit all students in all career paths.

Greenwald also states that before effectively training new, young leaders, an institution must first define what it means to be a leader. We’ve all put our two cents in on the matter, so I’ll go ahead and attempt to do so as well. Leadership in my eyes is the process in which a given subject learns and puts into effect efficient communication skills, both listening and speaking; the ability to understand thoroughly and assess the possible outcomes of a given situation; having a network of contacts within a given organization or community that helps spread your influence to a target audience; good intentions (there are strong leaders that have influenced people for terrible deeds, but in this class I’m fairly sure the aim is positive). It’s not a complete or all-inclusive definition but I think it’s a strong start and something I can support whole-heartedly.

Jon Lacy