Iowa State Leaderhsip Experience and Week 3

On January 26th, 2009 I attended the Iowa State Leadership Experience. I had never attended the event before and so this was something new for me. The keynote speaker, Marsha Grady, told an interesting story that involved research done by Harvard on what children thought leadership was. They drew pictures and wrote captions and some of the things they wrote were very interesting. Such as "a leader is someone we follow" or "a leader is my friend." I always like hearing stories about Harvard studies that they do with children, the results are always interesting and a little unexpected.

I then attended two sessions, unfortunately I was unable to stay for the other sessions since I had another meeting I had to attend. The first session I attended was on Facilitation Virtual and Face-to-face Meetings done by Craig Ogilvie. In this session we brainstormed ideas to have maximal engagement even over virtual meetings.

The second session I attended was on Creating a Clutter-free Life led by Mary Sigmann, a Certified Professional Organizer. I took away some interesting things from this session as well such as the three S's: Subtract, Simplify and Systematize. Mary also said something that a friend had taught here that I think will go with me throughout my life: "I'll support you in your strengths, but not in your weakness." I can see multiple instances where I should say things like that to people instead of just saying yes all the time.

She had us set goals and an action plan. My three goals:

1. Time Management Goal: Learn how to say no
2. Organizing Goal: De clutter my desk drawers
3. Self-Care Goal: Work out 3 times a week

I enjoyed attending the leadership experience and think it was a good thing to require in this class.

Next blog: Learning Community Mini-Institute attendance!

Cheers!
Lisa