Leadership for Student Services: Considering Possibilities

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Leadership for Student Services Considering
Possibilities

• Larry D. Roper
• Oregon State University

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Context for Leadership and Change
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As one approaches leadership and institutional
change one can do so from a number of
orientations among them are eliminative or
creative approaches. These two styles of
leadership are qualitatively different.How are
you anchored?
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THE ORGANIZATIONAL JOURNEY
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Dynamics During Challenging Times

• Social institutions and their members struggle
•  
• Lives of members become disconnected
• Personal value is questioned
•  
• People and organizations feel and behave as if
  they are at-risk

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Examples of at-risk behaviors

• Absence of hope for the future
• Inability to engage in trusting relationships
• Unwillingness to take risks on behalf of self or
  others
• Cynicism about institutional values
• Short-term view (here and now orientation)
  just get through it

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Roles and Responsibilities of Leaders

• To name and own realities of the journey
• To focus and expand sphere of leadership
  influence
• To model hope and optimism
• To practice Generativity
• To anchor relationships
• To give focus to mission and values of
  organization

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Leaders must make meaning and cultivate a sense
of place

• Enhance quality of relationships (add strength,
  power and substance)
• Bring order to chaos 
• Foster connections among the isolated 
• Give audibility, bring visibility, reduce
  marginality and increase mattering
• Seize the voids

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Leaders facilitate clarity

• Sharpen shared identity
• Connect with purpose
• Focus on goals
• Enhance shared capacity and relationships

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Leaders facilitate dialogue, directionality, and
discovery

• Who are we?
• Why are we here? 
• What do we hope to get done?
• How do we align our relationships to create the
  outcomes towards which we aspire?

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Leaders Focus Energy and Destination

• Energy can be random or focused
• Individual and collective energies are used in
  relation to a shared (desired) destination
•  
• Energy has physical, spiritual, psychological and
  emotional dimensions
•  
• Grapple with the question how do we pool our
  energy to create the best possible future?

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Leaders Hold the Culture Together

• translate beliefs into action
• lead through empathy
• take colleagues seriously
• invest in cultivating possibilities
• engage in care
• sustain and restore wholeness of individuals and
  groups

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Leaders are Intentional

• Know what you want for yourself and your
  organization
•  
• Act in ways that will lead to the achievement of
  those aspirations
•  
• Accept that individual and organizational
  integrity will only be achieved through showing
  consistency of purpose and action

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THE PERSONAL JOURNEY
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Assess what you are packing

• Values
• Skills
• Knowledge
• Beliefs
• Fears
• Dreams

Assess the Dimensions of Your Life
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Weight

• What is the heaviness or lightness of your being?
• How much psychic/emotional weight do you carry?
• What kind of lifting does being in relationship
  with you require of others?
• Who are the people in your life who require heavy
  lifting/bring you lightness?

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Breadth

• What is the range of your humanity?
• Who are you capable of wrapping your arms
  around and holding in relationship with you?
• What is the range of people with whom you are
  capable of being in community?
• What are the boundaries of your acceptance?

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Depth

• How far are you able to invite others into your
  life?
• How deeply are you able to explore the life and
  experiences of others?
• How deeply are you able to feel for others?

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MANAGING DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS
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Individual Introductions

• Begin in dyads
• Each person speaks for three minutes, without
  interruption
• Respond to the questions
• A relationship I would very much like to improve
  the condition of is
• Because an improved relationship would

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What if a relationship is nothing more than a
series of conversations?
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Think of a personal or work relationship that is
important to you that is not working. How would
you characterize your last three conversations
with or about that person?
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Leadership Ground Rules

• Generous listening
• Be on each others side
• Straight speaking
• Manage each others reputation
• Take care of each other

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Guiding Principles

• Dont start the conversation unless you are
  committed to having it turn out right for the
  organization and its members
• Be clear about the conversation (change) you
  intend
• Have only one conversation at a time
• Take all conversations to completion stay in
  the work until it is done

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Guiding Principles

• Treat conversations, leadership efforts and each
  person as if they matter
• Everyone involved is taken care of
• Dont begin the work unless you are producing
  something of value
• Involve yourself as if your participation is the
  key to the success of the effort

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Guiding Principles

• Ask for the commitments you want
• Be clear about expectations of you
• Document agreements and learning

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Creating Relationships That Work
People who care
Things that Matter
Thoughtful, Respectful Conversation
Personal shifts or insights
Things not expected
Increased Relationship and a sense of community
New thinking
Shared background of understanding
Pooled wisdom of the group increases
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What is your desired leadership legacy?
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What are 2-3 challenging leadership issues you
have faced in the last year?
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What do you aspire to create? What gets in the
way?
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What voices are least audible in your
organization? What can you do to help them be
heard?
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What are things that you are not saying, that if
you expressed and explored would make a real
difference to you and your organization? Where
are the places where you feel voiceless?
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What conversation would you like to convene if
you knew it would turn out okay?
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Who would like to have a conversation with you,
but since they are not sure how you will react,
they do not bring it up?
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What undiscussables in your organization impede
your ability to move important work forward?
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Where would it make a difference if you could say
what you think/feel?
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What are ways to ask hard questions that create
possibilities in relationships?How do you frame
issues in ways that invite conversation?How do
we design conversations for success?
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Stay Focused on the Destination

• Elevate your humanity
• Cultivate your spirit
• Embrace your vision
• Anchor yourself in hope
• Live in the possibilities

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Focus On Achieving Wholeness For Individuals and
Groups

• Honor pain and struggles
• Allow for vulnerability and humility
• Construct relationships rooted in possibilities
• Enhance capacity for sharing and communication
  use conversation as a community building
  mechanism