Breaking the Surface

Sarah Pierantoni — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:08:51 +0000

This is a video entitled "Breaking the Surface". It's a documentary of the GET: Girls Empowering Together project. Working with 15 students from central high school, the young women were taught leadership skills and worked with community mentors this school year. Program was a partnership between Aquinas College, the GRCMC and GRPS.

Sarah worked with these young women to produce, shoot and edit this documentary.

Posted by Ben Sheldon

A Few Notes on Individual Leadership

admin — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:05:11 +0000

An important aspect of leadership development is getting quality feedback. This may come from others, a coaching conversation, performance evaluation, 360-degree feedback, or it may come from self-assessments like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Learning Styles Inventory, or Insights Discovery Learning System.

You can go online and gain insight into your character strengths by taking the VIA Signature Strengths questionnaire developed by Dr. Martin Seligman and Dr. Christopher Peterson (it's free to take the survey and get your results, and you do have to register first).

What can you do with the information once you've completed the questionnaire? The Values In Action Institute on Character has dozens of exercises for each of the 24 characters strengths in the survey. It's easy to focus exclusively on weaknesses when designing developmental goals. If you balance that with a focus on your strengths and you use those strengths in new ways you will experience a greater sense of satisfaction and well-being.

Dewey Schott, NAMAC Senior Manager of Leadership Services

Report from the VISTA Leadership Training

Morgan Sully — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 05:22:28 +0000

This past week, the corporation paid for me to go out to a VISTA Leadership Training in Minneapolis as part of my preparation to be a VISTA leader. I found it pretty informative with lots of useful information. I may only use about 10% of it, but that 10% will be a VERY effective 10%. What i found most helpful was the 'Distance Leadership' workshop. In it, we generated opportunities within distance relationships between VISTA Leaders and Members.

I have posted all images I took from that workshop as well as the attached the typed up notes from Jean (posted in this post as well as downloadable at the end of this post).

Accomplishment(s):

attending and successfully completing the VISTA Leadership training
meeting other VISTAs
getting good ideas and dialogue going about issues pertinent to VISTAS
convening an 'open space' roundtable discussion of online tools
participating and taking picture notes (see pics) of "Distance Leadership Thinktank" workshop

Resource(s) Generated:

distance opportunity ideas for VISTA Leaders (click images to view more):

From Distance Lead...

distance opportunities for VISTA members:

From Distance Lead...

list of online tools

From Distance Lead...

These are also the notes which Jean kindly sent me - Thanks Jean!

*****************NOTES******************

Leading From A Distance: A Think Tank – Thinking Output
Minneapolis Leader’s Training Conference 2007

Opportunity Thinking: Opportunities for Remote Leaders
• Travel
• You set the timetable
• Ideas across borders/spread ideas
• Develop Communications Systems
• Resource accumulation/categorization
• Cross collaboration & Connecting Resources
• Allows time for Leader to fulfill site responsibilities
• Archive DJ / Knowledge orchestration
• Learn about/manage systems mechanics/engineering
• Face-to-face Project / Identity
• Develop expertise in variety of project areas
• Pollination of Leadership skills / styles
• Diversity of needs forces leadership development
• Learning about a diversity of communication styles
• On-line community development opportunities
• Utilize difference types/styles of conflict management with the variety of member personalities
• National Recognition of VISTA’s & organization
• Help a wide range of individuals
• Give VISTA members the opportunity to feel part of something bigger
• Learn different training skills to meet needs
• Strong case for funding: far reach / bigger impact
• Storytelling for capacity building & Education
• More resources to pull from
• Opportunity to become a very skilled communicator
Thinking Cue Time Frames
Immediate
• Time to process situations and issues don’t have to respond immediately
• Develop telephone conference skills
• See necessity of holding an early service retreat
Mid-Term
• Recognition of Accomplishment
• Reports (Quarterly, Monthly)
Long Term
• Documentation & Archiving everything
• Identification of Resources

Opportunities for Members with remote Leaders
• Develop/take initiative
• Develop/ practice discipline
• Have free reign
• Practice and develop creative use of modes of communication
• Create skills/discipline that increases long term job opportunities
• Take ownership of their project
• Learn from the different ways each project adapts to different context
• Access to resources
• Tapping into the variety of communities, cultures, etc.
• Learn to collaborate with different communities and cultures
• Share resources – increase the whole pie
• Learn to see big picture, system levels viewpoint
• Understand on different levels how organizations operate
• Experience independence
• Opportunity to develop own leadership skills
• Opportunities for individual innovation
• Higher visibility w/own project
• Synthesizing
• Travel Opportunities
• Learn/practice new ways of using technology
• One-on-one connection w/ community
• Take responsibility & Accountability
• Feeling like they (member) are part of something bigger
• Less competition between VSITAs
• Better / deeper understanding of a community
• Better experience as an advocate
• Strengthen networking skills
• Access to different communities / points of view
• Credibility in instances of self-promotion
• VISTA’s access is wider
• Greater avenue for expanding knowledge base & awareness
• Change/influence in lifestyle plan
• Personal Growth
• Independence
• Cultural Exchange
• Expanding comfort zone
• Changing personal viewpoints
• Instill a sense of adventure
• Self-reliance, confidence building
• Ambassadors at local community level
• Liaisons too
• New areas for recruiting
• New sites
• Local working knowledge
• Self-Challenge
• Building personal skills & knowledge
• Become an effective self-educator
• Viewpoint that allows reflective, constructive perspective of VISTA Leader & Team
• Reaching more people
• Affecting larger community
• Building off other’s successes

Challenges for VISTA Members w/remote Leaders
• Lack of experience and confidence
• Loneliness
• Maintaining larger picture
• Clashing personalities w/distance leader
• Develop sense of being abandoned
• Time Management
• Lack of resources
• Boundary setting

Challenges for remotely located VISTA Leaders
• Not being able to see progress
• Not being able to get full disclosure from members
• Note seeing project happening
• Not being able to support detailed needs
• Note easy to fully comprehend project
• Technical difficulties / too much use of technology
• Not being taken seriously
• Community sense
• Member becomes Leader and former peer members don’t buy-in
• Full awareness of members, prevent “out of sight…”
• Conflict resolution from a distance – escalation sensitive
• Travel limitations
• Inability to share power, let-go, release control

Strategies/Tactics: Maximizing Outcomes in Distance Leader Situation
• Setting a pace / time management support
• Creating an agenda / plan
• Make initial/early contact with each member
• Familiarize yourself w/ member work plans
• Create a Needs Assessment – to discern the individual needs of each member
• Set Up Conference calls
• Set the Vision
• Create/Share useful templates / plan documents
• Clarify long term goals w/each member
• Create an email listserv
• Have meet-ups @ sites maybe w/community members served
• Schedule meetings w/site supervisors
• Ensure organizational integration for each member
• Create a Welcome Packet w/contacts, welcome letter, housing assistance, community resource map etc.
• Online Community
• Keep Vs / funders connected and informed with Newsletters
• Life After VISTA Creating a Portfolio
• Connect members to local VISTA alumni
• Get local businesses to donate goods / services
• Eat, sleep and rest
• Make VISTA site / VISTA MySpace
• Process what we learned here and then draft a plan

More Strategies/Tactics
• Be available: site visits, office hours, be annoying in a caring way, identify and share the best ways to contact you, the leader, pre-set check-ins, conference calling etc.
• Building Team: Convenient meeting places, encourage members to visit one another, creative use of resources, getting team to know “teammates” activities (3 questions on Monday, answers on Friday)
• Needs Assessment, Progress Reports --- using information to have personalized conversations
• Regular social activities
• Look for relevant training opportunities that all can attend
• Communications: newsletters, blogs, chat rooms
• Encourage collaboration on project events and use some other members as volunteers during events
• Sardine version of on-site visits
• Service Projects as teambuilding
• Use summer facilities on campuses for reduced rates
• Link VISTAS: Book Clubs, Chain Letters – Flat Stanley (Travelocity Gnome)
• Scavenger Hunt Activities
• White Elephant –silly gifts
• Write letters
• Make phone calls weekly – use means outside of computer to communicate
• Create Welcome Materials / Sustainability Plans, Life After VISTA and Good-Bye packet.
• “Tool-Kits” for service ----an information packed resource
• Connect remote VISTAs to other teams (local) for immediate sense of community.
• Create / Use Statewide networks providing resources that target VISTA position in holistic sense: Living Stipend tips, Education Award information, Health Coverage, Project Explanations
• Motivational Speeches
• Get different varieties of feedback using different methods, adopt feedback (monthly, quarterly, end of service)

Digital Arts Service Corps - leadership

Breaking the Surface

A Few Notes on Individual Leadership

Report from the VISTA Leadership Training