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15 Mar 2016, 13:01
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| FROM Kelley MBA Blog: You! Go First. |
 Ken Frankel by Ken Frankel, MBA’17 Great leadership includes the ability to write in a way that inspires and fosters teamwork. In collaboration with the Gotham Writers Workshop, students in the Kelley MBA Leadership Academy have produced a series of blog posts to demonstrate these skills. The room had gone silent. Sixty people were suspended in a momentary limbo of uncertainty. Eric Johnson, Kelley School’s director of Graduate Career Services and the Leadership Academy, had just initiated a role-playing exercise focused on leadership coaching. Someone had to volunteer to ask the first question. To us amateur coaches, a coaching discussion felt like trying to have a conversation backwards. After a long pause with Eric scanning the room, I raised my hand and cautiously strung together some coherent words that loosely resembled a question. While Eric graciously revealed that my question wasn’t the ideal starting point, at least it kicked off the exercise. I share this scene not to highlight the need for courage, but rather to highlight my extroversion, which leads me to think more after I speak instead of before – for better or for worse. Fortunately, this extroversion has actually been a critical factor in enabling me to successfully transition from being a follower to being someone that can lead, which in this case, meant speaking first. I began to deeply internalize how my extroversion could enable my leadership when working with a team of four other Kelleys on a Business Marketing Academy consulting project for GE. I was surprised at meetings that my teammates didn’t always fit the stereotype of the “naturally chatty MBA.” I found myself being the first to speak at the start of and during transition points in our meetings. With time, this established me as the leader of the group. However, I didn’t quite feel comfortable as the defacto leader. I always assumed that the leader had to be among the smartest in the group, and I was certainly not qualified to lead on the basis of relative IQ. My team had two engineers, an army helicopter pilot, and a director in a foreign government. And, I did not have the strongest frame among the group. A person with a strong frame is so confident in their views that they end up explicitly or implicitly defining the dynamic of the interaction. Fortunately, I remembered some leadership guidance offered by a Kelley staff member during a Me, Inc. session: “Superior intelligence is not required to lead. For someone who is well-organized like yourself, focus on establishing a strong process for the interaction and others will happily follow along given your methodological direction.” This made a lot of sense to me. Everyone brings something to the table in a group interaction, and I happened to bring extroversion and organizational skills, both of which are ideal traits for project management, a leadership role. Since I felt confident that my process and road-mapping ideas would be sound, I leaned on these strengths to justify taking the lead on the consulting project. As I began to feel more comfortable taking the lead in group projects and class discussions, I no longer needed a reason to justify to myself that I am capable of leading. And, I realized my “going first” approach has also extended to leadership outside of a business setting. Five years ago as I stepped out of a Washington, D.C. subway train and walked towards the end of the station platform, a fistfight broke out between a haggard, older-looking fellow and a peppy, insubordinate-seeming youth. While they pranced around in an imaginary circle right next to the track with fists lifted and primed, my first reaction was to look around, hoping, wishing, for someone else to do something. Then, I remembered learning about the bystander apathy effect, which describes the phenomenon of how people may hesitate to offer help to endangered people if others are around. Refusing to validate the theory, I dashed to the subway station kiosk and notified the attendant, who then notified subway security to break up the fight. Whether it’s a stymied class discussion, a group project meeting, or even an exceptionally hazardous scuffle, I not-so-quietly acknowledge my extroversion and tell myself, “You! Go first.” |
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Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Last visit: 22 Dec 2016
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Concentration: General Management, Entrepreneurship
Schools: Duke '18 (D) Darden '18 (D) Kellogg '18 (D) HBS '18 (D) Kelley '18 (M$) Krannert '18 (A$) Sloan '18 (D)
GMAT 1: 610 Q44 V31
GMAT 2: 650 Q40 V39
GMAT 3: 680 Q47 V36
GPA: 2.89
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Schools: Duke '18 (D) Darden '18 (D) Kellogg '18 (D) HBS '18 (D) Kelley '18 (M$) Krannert '18 (A$) Sloan '18 (D)
GMAT 3: 680 Q47 V36
Posts: 58
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15 Mar 2016, 19:07
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mika84
Just received package with less than average scholarship. Can someone recommend how to negotiate with Kelley to increase scholarship?
From what I have read, they don't negotiate. 16 Mar 2016, 07:01
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| FROM Kelley MBA Blog: Three Golden Rules to Inspire as A Leader |
 Jesus Salinas By Jesus Salinas, MBA’16 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE Great leadership includes the ability to write in a way that inspires and fosters teamwork. In collaboration with the Gotham Writers Workshop, students in the Kelley MBA Leadership Academy have produced a series of blog posts to demonstrate these skills. Wouldn’t it be great to share your ideas so effectively that your mentees genuinely use them for their professional development? One of the most gratifying feelings a leader can have is helping a colleague or mentee succeed through effective and proper coaching. Even more gratifying is seeing mentees pay it forward by helping others because they felt inspired by your ideas. Being able to inspire as a coach has been the most valuable experience I’ve had during the Coaching Track within the Kelley School MBA Leadership Academy. I accomplished this by following three simple, yet crucial, rules. These three golden rules can be mastered by any leader that wants to really inspire others. 1. Become an active listener. Why do we always want to give the same advice to everyone that comes to us seeking guidance? No one person has the same goals as others, just as no one solution fixes all problems. No matter how skilled or experienced you are, always tailor a solution based on the needs, wants, and skills of each individual. The only way you can effectively accomplish this is through active listening. Many problems also have many multiple potential solutions. Listen closely to understand the challenges to be able to provide good guidance on the best possible solution. 2. Build trust and credibility. You might be great at active listening, but, if your mentees don’t value your credentials as a coach then they may discard your guidance. Building credibility creates trust between you and your mentees. That trust is critical to ensuring your mentees genuinely see that you have their best interests in mind and the experience needed to provide valuable guidance. 3. Understand the difference between guidance and advice. And, be able to use the right one at the right time. To guide means to provide a clear path for your mentee based on your mentee’s goals. Give your mentee a clear set of instructions or tool set that he or she can use to reach their goals. Giving advice, on the other hand, means to share what you would do if you were in your mentee’s shoes. Advice does comes with a certain bias. The ways you might act may not be the best ways to act for your mentee. So, it is very important to separate these two concepts and be able to provide valuable guidance, while only giving advice when it is requested. Normal 0 false false false ES-MX JA X-NONE When you genuinely practice these golden rules, not only will you contribute in the development of your mentee, but you might also inspire a leader to carry on with your ideas and help others achieve their own successful development. That is what I call going from moment to momentum. |
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