Student Reflections: USNA Leadership Conference, Part 3

The final post in a 3-part series, three undergraduate Wharton students reflect on their lessons from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Leadership Conference in February 2011.  Students from over 20 different schools, military and civilian, gathered in Annapolis, MD for three days of leadership development workshops and experiences.

Reflections from Colin Lee (W’11), Patrick Glover (W’11) and Christian Hoogerheyde (W’11) are featured.  This is the final part of a 3-part series.

Part 3: Christian Hoogerheyde, W’11
For as long as I could remember, I was consumed with an overwhelming sense of personal pride. My pride became impossible to ignore when I held student leadership positions in middle school and high school, for I succumbed to what I have termed the “When I’m Gone” syndrome: the desire to be “missed” when I had moved on from a position of leadership and the subconscious hope that others might grieve my departure and compare the accomplishments of my successors to my own.  I am ashamed to admit this, but I remember feeling that I wanted my successors to be good, but not too good, so that my achievements might still shine in comparison. 

It wasn’t until recently, however, that I became aware of how terribly detrimental this perspective (and pride as a whole) was for my ability to become a great leader.  Fortunately, my pursuit of genuine humility was re-ignited during the United States Naval Academy’s leadership conference.   One speech in particular really encouraged me to re-examine my pride and its consequences on my ability to truly lead.

Student Reflections: USNA Leadership Conference, Part 2

Our latest series of student reflections focuses on a group of undergraduates who attended the US Naval Academy conference, Leadership Development: The Cycle of Success in February 2011.  Students from over 20 different schools, military and civilian, gathered in Annapolis, MD for three days of leadership development workshops and experiences.

Three Wharton undergrads, Colin Lee (W’11), Patrick Glover (W’11) and Christian Hoogerheyde (W’11) reflected on the lessons learned from the conference that they hope to share with their successors in undergraduate Wharton Leadership Ventures and with the Wharton community broadly.  This is Part 2 of a 3-part series.

Part 2: Patrick Glover, W’11
For me, the biggest takeaway was that the most effective leaders are those that know themselves best. Introspection is key. The conference has taught me the importance of identifying my own personal leadership strengths and weaknesses. Colonel Arthur Athens, US Naval Academy’s Director of the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, really impacted me when he spoke about identifying your “sweet spot”.  The “sweet spot” is the situation and environment in which we lead at our best. Identifying this can help us all become better leaders across a range of different situations. We should strive to put ourselves in “sweet spot” situations and take action once we identify such situations. But perhaps even more importantly, we need to recognize when we are outside of our “sweet spot”; in these cases we can look to others for leadership. I had never thought about leadership from a “sweet spot”, but it makes complete sense to me now.

Nano Tools for Leaders IX

Mood and Productivity: Undoing a Bad Start

Nano Tools for Leaders® are fast, effective leadership tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes — with the potential to significantly impact your success as a leader and the engagement and productivity of the people you lead.

Contributors:

Nancy Rothbard, David Pottruck Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

The Goal:

Enhance productivity and performance by acknowledging and resetting negative moods that are brought to work.

Nano Tool:

A recent study indicates that waking up on the right or wrong side of the bed can have persistent effects: employees who bring negative emotions to work not only tend to stay in a bad mood throughout the day, but their productivity falls by over 10 percent. The old “leave it at the door” adage simply doesn’t work for the majority of people. However, there are steps leaders can take to counteract those moods, reverse the productivity drain, and increase performance levels. Resetting negative moods can be achieved using a variety of methods. Engagement works — ignoring the situation doesn’t. For higher productivity and improved performance, acknowledge the problem, make some slight accommodations,
and offer options. It can pay dividends to create a culture where walking in the door of the office leads to a more positive mood at the start of the day.

Student Reflections: USNA Leadership Conference, Part 1

In February 2011, undergraduate students attended the US Naval Academy conference, Leadership Development: The Cycle of Success.  Students from over 20 different schools, military and civilian, gathered in Annapolis, MD for three days of leadership development workshops and experiences.

Three Wharton undergrads, Colin Lee (W’11), Patrick Glover (W’11) and Christian Hoogerheyde (W’11) reflect on the lessons learned from the conference that they hope to share with their successors in undergraduate Wharton Leadership Ventures and with the Wharton community broadly.  We’ll bring you their reflections in three parts.

Part 1: Colin Lee, W’11
For me, the first lesson sounds simple, but it’s subtle and extremely important. It’s to enjoy being a leader and to lead when you have the chance.  Though I’m good with connecting with people, I’ve always been a “background” type of person.  Now, I think I’ve re-structured my thought process so I stop comparing the quality of my ideas; now, I don’t really worry if my ideas seem stupid.  For instance, at this leadership conference, I took the opportunity to ask questions.  From my experience of being involved in WLV, I am more keenly aware of and willing to take on leadership opportunities.

Student Stories: Nonprofit Board Fellows

Periodically, the Wharton Leadership Program blog likes to bring you stories straight from students’ own experiences with our programs.  We’ve interviewed one of our Nonprofit Board Fellows, Ashley Blackmon, a 2nd year MBA student serving on the board of Equality Forum, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance national and international gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) civil rights through education.

The Nonprofit Board Leadership Program places MBA students on the boards of local nonprofit organizations, where they serve for about 12 months, providing a learning experience for students and hopefully lasting impact for our partner organizations. 

 

How does your experience to this point compare to the goals you set for yourself last spring?

My experience has exceeded my expectations. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting into when I went to my first board meeting this fall. I’ve been able to witness the changes in board politics as the board gets closer to the organization’s headline event this spring, The Global LGBT Summit (April 25th – May 1st). Early in the fall I was also offered a full board membership, which included voting rights. I did not anticipate this, but this helped me get more involved in the decision making process.