KEY QUESTION: How do we align mindful leadership behavior in order to nurture individual intelligence(s) in a manner that allows us to maximize organizational capacity to achieve organizational purposes/goals?
In order to answer the key question we must first identify what we already know and encourage ourselves to build on this previous knowledge. By understanding what we want to know (more about) we can self-direct our learning to the specific unanswered pieces to better construct our knowledge of the concept. Critical thinking takes time and effort, so first let’s process the information we learned during the summer institute specifically to leadership, learning, service, and research…
Leadership
How did the speakers at Summer Institute in 2014 define leadership? Peter Holbrook (2014) told us that “Leadership is to positively influence others towards the achievement of a goal, while developing others. Leaders create leaders, not followers.” Mette Baran (2014) concurs that, “a leader’s job is to build up and encourage new leaders”. Primus (2014) stated that his goal, as an educational leader, was by the end [of a semester long class], to make himself unnecessary [to enable students to continue learning on their own]. Hattie (2009) also comments specifically to educators and believes each teacher should see his or her content through the eyes of his or her students. Each student sees him or herself as his or her own best teacher.
Law of Magnetism – who you are is who you attract. If you want fun and engaged students you better be fun and engaged in the material you are teaching. That passion becomes contagious throughout the classroom! Primus (2014) said that students will generally work as hard as their professor. Set the expectations high for yourself and the students will naturally achieve higher levels of learning.
“Believe it or not, who you get is not determined by what you want. It’s determined by who you are.” – John Maxwell
Learning
What is my operational definition of learning?
Learning occurs when an individual has an interest and passion that ignites the process of receiving and making sense of information that can be retained and later applied. The nature of individual capacity is malleable, so therefore leaders should mindfully design environments conducive to nurturing development. Leaders that ascribe to metacognition confidently provide opportunities for failure because they realize the learner’s second attempt is more likely to be successful than the first. Leaders and learners with a growth mindset will advance the goals of their organization because unlike those with fixed mindset that see challenges as places to fail and are concerned with preservation of their egos the growth mind sees endless opportunities for continued improvement (Dweck, 2006). All children and adults learn differently. It’s important for leaders and educators to understand, identify, and appreciate different learning types of individuals. It would be silly to think we all learn the same.
What did Mette Baran have to say about learning?
Mette Baran (2014) said that the brain consists of billions of neural cells that are connected to each other and to learn is to essentially form sets of those connections from previous knowledge and skills. Learning is an absolutely basic necessity, for survival and leaders need to continuously learn. She would define learning as “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge.” If one of our essential jobs as a leader to build up and support new leaders then, performing this is an act of service as a leader when we perform it with humility.
Intelligence
What is my operational definition of intelligence?
Intelligence is an evolving integration of analytical, creative, and practical abilities to apply knowledge (Sternberg, 1988) and solve problems (Gardner, 1998) in any given culture. Leaders should be able to identify an individual’s foundation of existing understandings and experiences in order to encourage employees to partake in deliberate practice to develop and construct new understandings and expertise. It is in this capacity that an individual’s ability will be continually developed and the probability for successfully completing organizational goals maximized. The work of Howard Gardner on multiple intelligences depicits the responsibility leaders have in needing to find the intelligence of each of their followers and maximize their capacities. Intelligence is not single, but multiple. It is not fixed, but malleable.
Leaders have the ability to positively and negatively influence the capacities of people working for and with them. Binet (1905) cautions against the “self-fulfilling prophesy” if a leader’s attitude toward his or her employee is that of a fixed mindset and/or one-dimensional. Depending on leaders’ disposition on intelligence and capacities an identical situation would be addressed and remedied differently depending on their beliefs. For example, an employee mistake could result in termination from one leader or could be viewed as an opportunity for growth through purposeful coaching and practice from the perspective of a mindful or servant leader. All employees have strengths, or native genius abilities, and it is the responsibility of the leader to discover and encourage growth.
Consider this: Is success in your organization about learning? Or about proving you are competent/smart?
Service
Stritch definition: “attitude and action to meet the needs of another.“
How do leaders serve and build relationships in their organizations?
Donder (2014) posits that teachers are educational leaders who need to be recognized, nurtured, and rewarded – celebrate success. Providing acknowledgement of service (that the followers have given) is a service in itself that leaders are obligated to perform. Frontier and Baran (2014) taught us that service is a catalyst for innovation and learning. The only way for an organization to be innovative and creative is if every individual is learning. Only then will an organization be successful (or meet the goals). Leaders are tasked with the responsibility of figuring out what the common goal is that we, as a team, are working towards and then understand what motivates each individual towards accomplishing that goal. Learning organizations are only successful when leaders truly care about developing the capacities of individuals in their organizations.
Have FUN! Yes, not only kids should be having fun; adults should too. According to Gallop studies there is a scary national trend indicating 70% of employees are disengaged or actively disengaged in their jobs. Master of Fun, Nathaniel Measley, (2014) encourages all organizations and classrooms to take time to have a little more fun to increase engagement levels of your employees and build relationships. He says that leaders need participate, engage, and authentically believe in the fun.
These are The Three C-laws for fun:
1.) Consistent
2.) during Company Time (15 minutes)
3.) Culture Compliant
Five reasons why we don’t have fun (WHICH ARE ALL A MYTH):
Hard to keep it appropriate
Interferes with productivity (if we’re having fun we aren’t doing our real jobs)
Not in the budget
Not in my job description
Self-perception of what a leader should be (serious)
If you don’t know what is fun, have your employees or students redefine the term using a vin diagram. On a sheet of paper write “fun to me is…” and then list the first three words that come to mind. Typically there will be a “shared experience” area and this is a great place to begin with fun. Fun environments are more productive, happy, and successful (increased learning/profits).
Consider this… What fun could you integrate into your next meeting? Fun doesn’t have to be audacious, it can be as simple as a championship round of rock, paper, scissors (which by the way, I won at SI 14′)!!! #wootwoot #yeame #IQwhat?
For additional information on the Socratic Method from expert, Richard Primus, J.D. Professor of Law at University of Michigan Law School, check out this related post!
Leadership, Learning, Service & Research 