National Student Leadership Forum » Continuing the Conversation

Roselinde Torres – What it takes to be a great leader

Admin — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 05:52:54 +0000

Roselinde Torres states three questions that future leaders who want to strive in the future should ask themselves…

1. Where are you looking to anticipate change?

2. What is the diversity measure of your network?

3. Are you courageous enough to abandon the past?

Watch the full video here

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10 Powerful Ways to Give Thanks with Your Leadership

Admin — Thu, 17 May 2018 05:41:48 +0000

10 Powerful Ways to Give Thanks with Your Leadership

This time of year, we celebrate the virtue of gratitude. Rightly so. The benefits of being grateful — both personally and professionally — are numerous and well-documented. While we should flex our gratitude muscle throughout the year, it’s also important to take extra time during the holidays to pause, reflect, recharge, and re-commit to bringing gratitude to life in every area of our life. For me, part of that process is reflecting on the ways we can bring more thankfulness into our leadership. Not just because it’s a “nice” thing to do but because it’s a crucial business imperative. Giving thanks is about making people feel valued. And research shows the highest performing teams and organizations are comprised of people who feel valued. So, by giving thanks with our leadership, we can both feel more fulfilled as leaders and inspire better business results in the marketplace.

Here are 10 powerful ways you can give thanks with your leadership to get better results year-round:

1. Honor people with your time. You’re the leader. You’re busy. People understand that. But, what if you gave just a little more generously of your time? I have found that the more I honor people with my time and devoted attention, the more they honor me right back with their commitment, hard work, and trust. Find ways to give people an opportunity to connect with you, whether it’s walking around the hallways, making more time in your calendar for face-to-face meetings, or even just jumping on a 15-minute phone call to listen to ideas and offer your insights. A little goes a long way.

2. Hold better meetings. Meetings are an essential part of modern work life but they’re so often a time-wasting slog that employees can begin to dread them. It doesn’t have to be that way. By crafting clear rules around meetings, you can ensure they are productive and efficient. Start by not scheduling them at wacky off-hours and commit to keeping them brief whenever possible. Then, make sure you’re just as prepared for them as your employees are. This way, people know you value their time as much as your own. And that you care about their work. It can make a huge difference.

3. Actually say “thank you” earnestly and often. Earlier in my career, I was fired from my job. It was thanks to the support of other people that I was able to get back on my feet. One of the lessons I learned from the experience was the importance of saying thank you to the people who help lift you up. Ever since, I’ve adopted a practice of hand-writing personalized thank-you notes to people in the organizations I’ve led. At last count, I’ve written over 30,000 notes to people at every level, in every imaginable department. They aren’t gratuitous or filled with platitudes. The notes celebrate specific achievements and contributions. It shows I’m paying attention. And that I’m deeply grateful.

Some leaders think thank you “goes without saying” or that an employee’s paycheck is the thank you. It’s simply not the case. People want to hear it; they need to feel it. And there’s no downside to expressing gratitude when it’s been rightly earned with good work. So find a way to explicitly say thank you. Maybe handwritten notes aren’t your style. That’s fine. Find something that works for you and keep up with it diligently. 4. Provide opportunities to learn and grow. People want to learn. Investing in their development is good for them, good for you, and good for business. In today’s fiercely complex world, organizations must grow or die. The companies that win are the ones that are always adapting, always learning, always getting better. The best way to ensure your organization keeps pace is by championing a learning culture. That means providing tangible and plentiful opportunities for people to learn and grow. When you help people thrive, they get more engaged and stay excited about work. People don’t want to remain stagnant; they want to embrace their full capability. You can meaningfully value them by supporting their development. In my experience, if you give people the tools and energy to do their jobs with distinction, they will perform better and stick around longer.

5. Give the gift of giving back. One of the most powerful ways to value people is by helping them become more involved in causes they care deeply about. There is a growing awareness about the business case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the benefits of “doing well by doing good.” But what sometimes gets less attention is how positively societal engagement affects employee engagement. Many employees want to feel that their work matters, that their efforts contribute to something larger than shareholder return or quarterly targets. When you identify ways to allow them to give back in partnership with their workplace, it means so much. So, ask people what matters to them. Think creatively about how you can leverage the resources of your organization to help them make a difference in a win-win way for them and for the organization. If you need help, CECP has resources that empower corporations to be a force for good in society.

6. Offer to help. Leadership that works is anchored in a helping spirit. To value people (and transform your leadership), start more interactions with the four simple words, “how can I help?” You’ll be surprised how it sets the tone for your conversations and helps you shape more productive relationships. First, asking how you can help puts the emphasis squarely on the other party, not on you. It centers their issues and needs. (This alone can lead to improved interactions; too often leaders steamroll and dominate discussions.) Next, it signals that you are available – that you’re there for them. This means a lot. It shows they’re not alone. People can tell when their leaders are absent; it’s not a sustainable approach. If you don’t show up for others, why should they show up for you? The more you offer to help, the more you demonstrate that you’re in the fight with them — and the more extraordinary things you can accomplish together.

7. Choose the right goals. People deserve goals that are aspirational and achievable. They need to know what direction to go in and to have clarity around a shared vision. (And they should also feel that their input has been honored in the shaping of that shared vision.) To value people, take the time to make sure you’re choosing goals that motivate and inspire your whole team. What’s the best way to do that? Remember this motto: pursue the ideal; stay anchored in the real. The goals that will inspire engagement and activate your team members should be idealistic and realistic. If you aim too low, nobody gets excited. Where’s the rush in maintaining mediocre standards? If you dream too big, people become demotivated and failure-adverse. The sweet spot is right in the middle. By smartly embracing the tension between the ideal and the real, you can create a direction for the people in your organization that is unifying, inspiring, and invigorating.

8. Listen like a leader. How many times have you been in a conversation where it’s clear the other person was not listening to you? How deflated and/or frustrated did you feel afterwards? As leaders, it’s urgent that we don’t leave others with those same bad feelings after they interact with us. It’s on us to uphold a higher standard – to model the right behavior. We’ve got to be better listeners. Listening is one of the simplest ways to tangibly demonstrate that you value the other people with whom you live and work.

Sure, it can be difficult. Often leaders are tempted to jump in with a quick fix (before they have all the information), or they’re distracted because they’re being pulled in ten different directions. But it’s no excuse. You can rise to the challenge. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn in a short period of time by simply listening more carefully. And you’ll be shocked at how much more completely and efficiently you can make decisions when you actually wait to get all the facts before interjecting. One more bonus? People will bring you their best ideas first because they know you’ll actually hear them out. So, don’t wait. Try to listen more intently in your very next interaction.

9. Make a promise. If you want people to know you are serious about valuing them for excellent work, publicly declare your intention to do so. If you say it loudly and proudly, people know that you mean business and that you expect to be held accountable to what you say. Use clear language so the meaning is unmistakable. When I was CEO of Campbell Soup, we developed The Campbell Promise, which simply stated: Campbell Valuing People, People Valuing Campbell.We meant it. Our leadership team worked tirelessly to fulfill this promise with our entire suite of leadership behaviors — and the results were unprecedented employee engagement levels and cumulative shareholder returns in the top tier of the global food industry. Find a way to visibly declare how you intend to treat people. Make a promise or a pledge and commit to bringing it to life.

10. Do what you say. As Stephen M.R. Covey says, “Trust is the one thing that changes everything.” The most powerful way to consistently value people is to prove that you are worthy of their trust. You can’t accomplish this with one action or speech or initiative. You have to cultivate trust over time. Building trust may take a little while, but there is no other endeavor more worthy of your effort. When you show up for people in an integrity-laden way, you value them and their contribution to the overall effort. Although there are a variety of ways to inspire trust with your leadership, the single most important way is to do what you say you are going to do – and do it well. Over and over again. The more you walk your talk, the more people know they can depend on you in good times and bad, and the more they are willing to bring their best selves to work – because they will trust that you won’t let them down. Remember, being dependable is rare and priceless. So many leaders fall short in this area. Be the exception.

This holiday season, capture the spirit of gratitude in your leadership behaviors. Try harder, listen better, do more. Reflect on all the ways you can give thanks with your leadership by valuing people more fully. When you value people and influence them with honor, leadership is more joyful and more effective. Try these ten powerful options. Or brainstorm your own list of behaviors and practices to try. The possibilities are limitless.

This article was written by Douglas Conant and can be found through this link. Please click here

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What CEO’s are reading in 2017

Admin — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 06:32:32 +0000

Reading is a great way to learn. Find out what books are being read by a sample of CEO’s from around the world.

Take the time to continue your self learning – successful individuals never stop learning and never stop challenging their assumptions.

Download the list: What-CEOs-are-reading-in-2017

This McKinsey & Company article includes books from these CEO’s and more!

Maria Ramos – Barclays Africa

Dave McKay – Royal Bank of Scotland

Drew Houston – Dropbox

General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of General Staff, British Army

Gail Kelly – Group of Thirty and former CEO of Westpac

Original article can be found at http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/what-ceos-are-reading-in-2017
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Come and See by Dr Steven Garber

Admin — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 23:53:12 +0000
A long time ago, most of 30 years, I met a young man from Richmond, VA, in a summer study program on the Chesapeake Bay. Set on a beautiful old farm near St. Michaels, we called it “Knowing & Doing,” and spent a month together working out the connection between belief and behaviour, between our knowing and our doing.

Rob Straw was a student at the University of Richmond, almost ready for his senior year. We talked a lot that summer, and I came to love him, as sometimes happens in the push-and-shove of learning, when a teacher offers the ancient pedagogy of “come and see,” inviting a student to learn over-the-shoulder and through-the-heart. And of course, like all true learning, this is only possible when the student wants to learn, when the student has ears to hear and eyes to see.

Not so long after his undergraduate years, he went to Germany, studying business, eventually earning a PhD, and of course becoming fluent in German. And now for most of 25 years he has lived in Switzerland, for many years teaching graduate students the ways of business in the globalising economy. After years in the classroom, he has taken his insights about the marketplaces of the world into some of the most troubled places of the world. Viet Nam. Iran. Ghana. And more often than not, representing Switzerland and its banks to the countries who need help finding their way into healthier economies.

He came home for a few days to see his family, specially looking in on his mother whom he loves dearly. But on his way back to Europe, he stopped in Washington and we talked this afternoon. Watching the planes fly in and out of National Airport, drinking our afternoon teas and coffees, we talked mostly about his work in the far-flung places— and of course about what vocation is and isn’t, about what occupations are in relation to our vocations, and about what he is always learning about people whom he meets in the cities and societies he visits.

It was clear to me that Rob is still the eager man that he was, even as a 20 year-old. Deeply motivated by his deepest convictions about God and the world, his work calls him to enter into complex, even messy places, where hope and dream, money and marketplace are all twined together. Not content with a bifurcated faith for a bifurcated world, he works hard instead for one that is more coherent, where what he believes about the world is the way he actually lives in the world, personally and professionally. Listening carefully, I was sure that he longs for integrity between his knowing and his doing— across the whole of life, across the whole of his life.

We will talk again, and again and again, I hope, still having conversations with consequences, for him and for me.

Title: Come and See
Author: Dr. Steven Garber
Format: online article
Year Published: 2016
Publisher: The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture
Access: Sourced with permission from Dr. Garber, original post – http://www.washingtoninst.org/11028/conversations-with-consequences-3/
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The Vulnerability Hangover

Admin — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 06:00:13 +0000
The Vulnerability Hangover

by Jess Bellingham

If you have ever had any involvement in the Forum, chances are you have also experienced what we interns like to call the ‘vulnerability hangover’. Unlike a regular hangover, the vulnerability hangover has nothing to do with mixing drinks, lack of hydration and flashbacks to dancing on the table. However, much like the classic, alcohol induced hangover, the vulnerability hangover has a lot to do with loss of control, revealing more of yourself than you usually would, and being pushed way past your comfort zone.

The Cause: – Lets flash back for a minute to your small group meetings at Forum. The first meeting seems pretty harmless, you do the usual mingle; scoping each other out based on what you are studying, what you do for work and whether or not you would made a decent world dominator. However, by the second night, people are suddenly sharing their deepest darkest secrets, and everything is suddenly being exposed. Bearing your soul – or as we quaintly put it ‘sharing your story’, can be a foreign concept to a lot of us. Most of us don’t generally sit down at the dinner table with friends and family and have a candid discussion about all our fears and shortcomings. Our friends and family have done a lot of our journey with us already, so no excess verbalization is really needed. And yet Forum drops you into the middle of a group of high achieving individuals, who by all appearances seem to have their lives in relative order. Into this space, you are expected to share who you are and how you came to be this way (your values). That is all well and good, but we all know that growth does not come without hardship. So you sit there, feeling a little under qualified a little inadequate and a lot out of your comfort zone – and you begin to share…

The funny thing is, once the gut wrenching fear of judgement subsides, you begin to discover that sharing your story comes with an odd, yet beautiful sense of catharsis. There is a certain safety to sharing with people who you don’t know. Everyone accepts each other without judgement. You have a chance to really portray exactly who you are. So in this zone, you begin to discover not only everyone else’s story – but your own as well. It is surprising, and undeniably pleasant… It is a little like being intoxicated.

The Hangover: – Almost immediately after group ends, and you have a spare 3 seconds to process, the hangover begins. It begins with the feeling that you have overshared. You have been asked questions no one has ever asked before, been emotionally prodded and poked, and suddenly you realise that you have revealed some of the deepest parts of who you are…. To randoms…
Congratulations! You have an official vulnerability hangover! But here is the crux of the issue – the hangover has a lot more to do with your own heightened sense of self awareness than it does with the actual sharing of your story. To verbalise is to acknowledge. There are some parts of your story that I am sure you wish weren’t there. And yet they are. When you verbalise these, and their effects, you accept they happened. You accept brokenness. You accept that, at one point, something got in under your skin, under the exterior, and shook your world. And although you are now different, and you have changed, it was because of the hardship. The reality of this spins around your head, drys your throat, and is often accompanied with slight nausea and a strong desire to stay in bed…
Thus the hangover.

The Cure: – Fear not! Hangovers are temporary, and the vulnerability hangover is no exception. For us interns – hangovers are almost a weekly occurrence. On a base level I can recommend the following –
– Junk food of choice
– A berrocca
– Perhaps a nip of actual alcohol
– A solid binge of your favorite TV series (or if like me, you are more on the nerdy spectrum, a good book).

I also recommend a sense of humor, and dare I say it, some hair of the dog.
When it all boils down, vulnerability is something that you can either run from, or step into. Only one of these options will give you something in return, and only one of these options will allow you invaluable personal growth. And many of us can testify to the fact that it is worth the recoil.
So drink up.
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NSLF Spotlight – Alysha

Admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2016 21:41:22 +0000
Each year we take a group of young men and women to participate in the NSLF Internship program. This is an 8-month commitment to growing relationally, professionally and spiritually whilst helping to build the Forum event.

Alysha is one of our 2016 Interns. Here’s her story.

• How did you get involved with the Forum?

A chance encounter on a wharf formed a friendship that changed my life. After coming to Australia from Texas for a work holiday, I met a girl with a radiant spirit and we became fast friends. She really believed in my potential in leadership and truth seeking. Being involved with the Forum herself, she felt this would be a great experience for me. When the Forum came around last year, she nominated me to attend and I jumped on the chance. It’s truly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!

• What is your favourite thing about the Forum?

I thoroughly enjoyed the stories shared in small groups. It’s such a profound experience that I can’t quite describe. It’s a rare chance to peek deep into the makings of people from vastly different walks of life. This is the place where conversations are honest, insightful and possibly core shaking all at once. It’s a gift to hold space to hear another’s life experience and in turn have that space held for you. You can’t help but walk out of there feeling compelled to broaden your perspectives.

• Why are you doing the internship? What is interesting about it?

The internship is a structured way to continue the Forum experience- to explore further and hone the values that we are cultivating. As a team, we can encourage and support each other to practically live out the values and qualities of servant leadership. Also, the professional experience is invaluable as you learn what it takes behind the scenes to put an event like this together. I feel honoured that I can contribute a part to putting together this impactful event. I’m constantly inspired by the awesome spectrum of personalities that are now part of my tribe in this journey. The scale of growth that is taking place in us during this internship is my personal favourite “interesting” thing.

Thanks Alysha!

Originally sourced from our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NSLFAustralia/photos/a.243767682310918.59424.147334721954215/1134613686559642/?type=3&theater
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NSLF Spotlight – Mimi

Admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2016 21:20:19 +0000
Each year we take a group of young men and women to participate in the NSLF Internship program. This is an 8-month commitment to growing relationally, professionally and spiritually whilst helping to build the Forum event.

Mimi is one of our 2016 Interns. Here’s her story.

I had no knowledge of the forum prior to the time I was nominated by the director of the college house I am currently live in. I had a few conversations with a friend that attended the forum the year before I did and he told me that he had a really great experience in Canberra. I went onto the NSLF website, read up on the forum and I was immediately drawn in by the fact that the conversation around the whole forum was based on faith and values. At that moment I knew it was something I wanted to be involved in. So I decided to go ahead and apply for it.

• What is your favourite thing about the Forum?

My favourite thing about the forum is the openness of it all. It is a free space where you can be vulnerable and completely yourself whilst still being respected and encouraged. The willingness of every individual to share and the spirit of community at the forum is non-like any other.

• Why are you doing the internship? What is interesting about it?

I am doing the internship because I saw it as an opportunity to challenge myself and grow whilst contributing to something with such a positive outcome for many. At the forum last year I knew I would love to come back again at some stage and be a part of it in another way. This happened to be the perfect opportunity and I get to do so whilst working alongside some amazing people.

Thanks Mimi!

Originally sourced from our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NSLFAustralia/photos/a.243767682310918.59424.147334721954215/1134622239892120/?type=3&theater
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Seminar – Leadership in the Business World

Admin — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 09:09:48 +0000
At our most recent ‘Open Conversations’ seminar, we had the privilege of speaking to Tim Pickles and Jonathan Stephen on leadership within the business world. Both successful businessmen in their own right, their wisdom and insight was invaluable. Here are 15 quotes from the night.

1. “Be excellent in whatever you have NOW.”

2. “Even if you have no idea where you are going, or what it is all leading to, do what you can with what you have. The task you have now could just be preparation and training for something else.”

3. “Learn to work well at your craft.”

4. “Do the best with what you have been given right now.”

5. “Start by being faithful with a little – whoever can be trusted with a little, can often be trusted with a lot – so don’t be afraid to start small.”

6. “Get help from your mates. It is crucial that you have a support network.”

7. “Being successful in business can be really lonely, have people outside of your business that you hold close and seek support from.”

8. “Have a positive attitude.”

9. “Get the most out of every day.”

10. “Working through the tough stuff – especially at the beginning, might not be fun, but it is formative.”

11. “Success doesn’t happen overnight.”

12. “Learn from mistakes.”

13. “Don’t worry about failure – it’s not a game if you are winning all the time.”

14. “Wealth gathers slowly – you don’t just wake up wealthy, it is something that builds.”

15. “Learn to deal with money, be generous with it.”

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Your Fear Landscape

Admin — Tue, 03 May 2016 05:31:05 +0000
A few years ago, a movie called ‘Divergent’ came out. Based off a book series, the plot involves a dystopian future where society has broken into factions based on their natural abilities and proclivities. The main character finds herself in a faction called ‘dauntless’ – a group of daredevils, all of whom are trained to overcome all fear. As such, they are continually placed into simulators that mimic their fear landscapes. (I swear this is relevant, so bear with me). It is here that they must face their fears head on – thus enabling them to conquer them.
Drowning, heights, small spaces and all the other regulars feature. And this question of fear landscape came up in our meeting this week. On a completely superficial level, my fear landscape involves giant, spindly legged spiders, water I can’t see the bottom of, and being buried alive. But realistically, if we were all faced with our fear landscapes, it would look very different.
In reality, a lot of us fear things like failure. We fear separation from others, we fear death, rejection and loneliness. We fear not being able to reach our full potential. We fear our dreams are just that… Dreams.
We fear we won’t do anything worth while and we fear that at the end of the day we wasted our time. These are all a lot deeper than fearing spiders, and all have the potential to deeply affect us.
Fear is one of our most primal instincts.

Just as a fear of spiders keeps me from putting my hands into cobweb filled corners or dark crevices, fear of failure (more often than I would like to admit) keeps me from trying. Fear of rejection causes me to withdraw, and fear of wasting time stifles my creativity. Keeps me in the ‘safe zone’. Safe isn’t always comfortable. And I would argue, that as inherently creative and adaptable beings, we are designed for change. Equipped to deal with risk.

So this week as we sat discussing our fear landscapes, we also discussed the way that our fears affect the way we relate with others. How are our fears impacting those around us?
How are our fears impacting the way we view ourselves?
The answers differ from person to person, and by the end of the meeting, though we came to no clear cut conclusions of how to solve these issues, we did come to realise that awareness is an invaluable tool. Self knowledge and awareness, is essential to personal growth and development. Because fears suggest weakness, we avoid them. We don’t want to get ourselves into our fear landscapes and face them head on. And we sure don’t want to let others into our fear landscapes alongside with us. But just because you ignore your fear landscape doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. If anything, ignoring our fears makes them so much worse. But in facing them head on, in acknowledging them for what they are, we have the chance to conquer them.
We have a chance to change how they impact us and our relationships.
A chance to not become fearless… But perhaps to become dauntless.

Some food for thought – What is your fear landscape? How do your fears affect your relationships? How do your fears hold you back?

J.Bellingham
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In the Office

Admin — Tue, 03 May 2016 05:24:47 +0000
The Forum was an amazing four days – which many of us will look back on and remember as being life changing. We often can’t necessarily pin point why. A combination of good company, inspiring speakers and an atmosphere that inexplicably creates a sense of unity. The air hums with possibility, and many of us make life long friends. The Forum is a place of growth, connection and exploration. A chance to discover and solidify our faith and values.

The Forum internship, is a little bit like a ten month Forum… but with a lot more phone calls, admin tasks and soul bearing discussions. Each week, we gather in small groups to discuss a variety of topics, each having to do with faith, values and growth. This section of the Library will explore parts of what has been covered in these small meetings. We hope that you take these questions and discoveries and use them as a springboard for your own discussions.

J.Bellingham
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