Week 11 - The Big Reveal
Philip L. Dubois wrote about his leadership as president during a time of crisis. Early in the chapter, he says this:
“Your stakeholders are measuring your conduct during the crisis. They know that a crisis does not make character - it reveals character” (p. 30).
Here we are during a time of crisis at Michigan State University. While everyone is looking to those in high positions to see what they will do, I think it is important to continue to look at all levels of leadership. While my office is not one that has a lot of contact with students, we have come together to make sure we support our students to the best of our ability. I’m not entirely sure where this thought is going, but I wanted to mention it because it has been on my mind lately.
Another issue that has come up - Richard Spencer. I am still torn about the best way to confront something like that. Dubois (a person in authority) worked with the mayor (another person in authority) to come up with the plan to ignore it. Let me connect last week with this week... Those in power here at MSU suggested we do the same thing. What was different, however, is that the students (the people with the problem of sorts) decided to also have a secondary event. Something that was designed for students by students. I didn’t see this connection until I started writing this. There must be ways for this kind of leadership to work together.
Transvigoration
The answer may not be to have the two kinds of leadership work together in a traditional sense. The answer is to find a leader (or leaders in a co-leading/collaborative fashion - which may be the true way of looking at this) who can invigorate the people who are charged to find the solution to an adaptive challenge. Estela Bensimon calls this “trans-vigorational” leadership. Leaders who use this type of leadership "conform to the culture of an organization while simultaneously finding ways to improve it” (p. 43). This type of leadership is another way to counter the lone ranger type of leader we hear so much about. Part of this new form of leadership will require that the “leader” be willing to share the leadership to work within a community or organization because no one person can do it alone.
I have often countered this argument and said that it was the only way to create change. The truth is... there are many ways to create and support change. Some of it will come from transactional leaders who keep an organization running by accepting and maintaining the status quo. Some of it will come from transformational leaders who shake things up by introducing new ways to think about or accomplish goals. And still, some of it will come by sharing of leadership responsibilities in a way that works from within to invigorate the people to enact change.
Yes... It truly takes all kinds.