Theories, SWOT, and Emotional Intelligence

Today was another busy day at the leadership institute, beginning with our first look into the newest theories and research about the practice of leadership. Among these theories is the "strength finding" approach as we all discovered in our pre-work reading Now, Discover Your Strengths. We started our day with a nice pop quiz about the main concepts of the book, and as the morning passed we continued to discover our strengths, gaining more insight into ourselves and the themes that best describe us. We had a chance to work in groups to learn more about our talents, tendencies, and other people who posses similar themes.

Lunch was welcomed with open arms, and after everyone was well fed, we were all ready to apply our strengths and weaknesses to our CLP (Community Leadership Plan) projects, using the acronym SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. We learned about the internal and external factors that could help us or harm us in achieving an objective, and partnered up to specifically map out each of the SWOT factors in relation to our individual projects. This gave us the chance to get feedback on our projects, as well as consider how to run our projects effectively (using our strengths/opportunities and planning around any weaknesses/threats).

Our last lesson of the day was my personal favorite, relating to emotional intelligence. We discussed intelligence in it's many forms - how we define it, how we test it, and most importantly, how it affects the people we work with in a group. We played the "HAHA" game, learning that our emotions can be contagious, and as a leader, it is our duty to set the "mood" for our group or team. Furthermore, we discussed the sections of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

In the evening, we had some time to get some fresh air, eat dinner, and grow our leadership community. Then we split up, half of us working on a leadership project to analyze and learn from the styles, strengths, and weaknesses of a historical leader, and half of us working to plan our Ronald McDonald Community Service project to be conducted this weekend. Well, TTFN, ta ta for now.

trust

Trust
Its what most groups strive for and its what we walked away with from Bond Park. It's the inter-twining thread that makes a group stop being a group and start becoming a family.


Today at Bond Park ropes course we did several activities (ex. the low ropes course, have you ever?, Zebras and Lions and other field games) that challenged our strength both physical and mental, perseverance, self-discipline, communication, and implementing the leadership methods we have just learned, just to name a few. However, most influential of all, was The Wall. We were challenged with the monumental task of hoisting all 36 of us over a 12 1/2 foot- wooden wall. Yep, we know what your thinking right now, your child, being hoisted up over a 12 foot wall? I hope you had a medical staff on hand. Well, don't worry, we went through emergency procedures and there was a mosh pit of the other 35 of us at the bottom. But when you happened to look down and there were 72 hands and 36 voices yelling words of support and encouragement, it was one of the most profound experiences of trust i had ever seen.
We also had an personal challenge to psychologically leave our fears and worries at the wall. In conclusion I think I speak for all of us when I say we left our worries at the wall but brought home self-confidence, pride, and trust.

Monday, July 14th, 2008

Today was another full day at the Leadership Institute! Despite the night's heat, it was overcast and considerably cooler in the morning (considered "fabulous" by some campers). After breakfast, we were off to class.

In our morning session, our first item on the agenda was the Kiersey Temperament Sorter-- a test similar to the MyersBriggs that would determine our personalities based on a series of 70 questions about how we handle issues, our tendencies in interactions with others, and information about our knee-jerk reactions in hypothetical situations. The results of the test would measure how we handled the outside world, ourselves, how we handle issues, and other qualities. Anne Powers, a former TIPster herself, came to speak to us and gave us a PowerPoint presentation on our results and included us in various engaging activities that showed how our similar traits made us different in how we handled the same issues.

After a break for lunch, Katy (our Junior Instructor) gave another presentation and involved us in an engaging, almost Socratic-like discussion on conflict management and resolution options. We split up into groups of six and, using traits of constructive and destructive criticism, made skits that identified and personified each and how each can be good or bad, respectively.

After dinner and a few pick-up games of Ultimate Frisbee, Football, "tip" and lounging on the benches, we were ready for an active Evening Session with reflective journaling based on what we learned that day about our personalities and an outdoor activity tying in teamwork and conflict resolution between leaders. While the activity was challenging yet fun to work through, it was exhausting and we were ready for bed. (MS)

Some Photos to Start!