Leadershape 2015
Following the Fall 2014 semester, after applying, I was accepted alongside 59 other UHP students into the six day retreat from January 4-9 put on by the LeaderShape Institute. From what I'd heard from past years' graduates LeaderShape was life-changing and offered lessons you would never learn anywhere else. The information I could glean from them was mostly basic stuff, but that was to protect the integrity of the program for those who haven't experienced it yet. Looking back I'm glad my prying questions weren't answered because I see the value in moving through the steps of LeaderShape myself. All I knew was that I'd be engaged each day through large groups, small groups, a low ropes course, and by real UC community leaders. After being briefed in a pre-departure meeting I was absolutely pumped and couldn't wait for winter break to pass. The retreat was held at Higher Ground Conference and Retreat Center in Indiana. Throughout the week the program is designed to engage each individual and explore the qualities that make someone a leader as well as craft a personal vision for the future that will create a positive change.
I never expected to leave LeaderShape with 59 close friends and multiple UC faculty contacts. To me the way LeaderShape brought 60 students together to learn and bond in a meaningful way is truly extraordinary. One of the facets the co-leaders of the program continually reminded us of was that we were in a safe place. At the time the concept somewhat went over my head but I can see now how important and foundational it is. Had we not been in a "safe place" none of us would have been able to be vulnerable or share in our conversations. I was able to come out of my shell and become involved with every activity because of the safe place.
Day 1:
Once we arrived at Higher Ground, unpacked, and got settled on the first day we began by picking apart leadership myths like in the top left of the picture. We also started building our definitions of leadership. Many personal insights were offered and then we were introduced to the seven aspects that constitutes an effective leader. These are possibility, vision, relationships, action, integrity, community, and positive change. It was made clear to us how integrity is truly the central aspect that glues everything together. We were then introduced to our "family clusters," designed so that the ten people in each small group to be comfortable with each other throughout the week. I made it a point to be actively involved, which is something I tend to skimp on doing due to my initial shyness among new people. Our group had immediate chemistry and we greatly enjoyed our time together, especially during the process of naming our cluster. After deliberation we decided on Team Pluto because we had the farthest to walk to our meeting place. We also chose Pluto the dog as our mascot and our enormously talented Leah Neff drew him on our poster. We closed that night with a reminder to not only engage each day in the planned activities, but to on your own time reflect. I've never kept a diary but reflecting after each day at LeaderShape is something I'm extremely glad I did because it allowed me to remember all the takeaways and not forget seemingly inconsequential details.
Day 2:
I'm glad I ate a hearty breakfast that day because for about 4 hours we participated in a low ropes course designed by Miami University for team-building. We were split up into groups, not necessarily our family clusters, and taken through each activity by a student facilitator from Miami University. At each activity we were presented with a problem or task we needed to complete. Most times it wouldn't take us much discussion to formulate a plan and execute it together. As we later would learn the theme for the day was The Value of One, The Power of All. Concluding the low ropes course I had developed an understanding of how we needed each other for every task. No one person was left out or unused. We were all valuable and could achieve just about anything together. After lunch the concept of DiSC was introduced. D for dominance, i for Influence, S for Steadiness, and C for Conscientiousness. Each of us filled out a personality test that placed us into one of the four categories. I scored highest under the C category and upon further reading, knew it definitely described me well. A "C" is naturally inclined toward precision and organization as a leader. I know I can tend to act overly perfectionistic. We all read about ourselves through the descriptions on the page for category then reconvened to discuss how each type is crucial to the success of a group. Having too many "D" people in one group can lead to a power struggle, while having all "S" people can lead to stagnation and not accomplishing anything. We highlighted the importance of including every single group member to work toward its overall success.
Day 3:
Vision. That was our theme for the day. After starting the morning with a fun activity of building balloon castles in groups, we started to explore our own ideas in order to help shape a possible future. At first I was stumped and could not for the life of me think of anything. Everyone around me had visions of grandeur like curing diseases, exploring interstellar space travel, and building hospitals in impoverished countries and I had nothing like that. I must have looked overtly stumped because my cluster facilitator sat down to talk with me about my vision. When I came up with nothing she encouraged me to delve into my interests, passions, and talents. I mentioned my passion for music in schools and she told me to run with that. That set the ball rolling for me and soon I had written my own Tomorrow's Headline for our activity (pictured bottom right). Even though my vision doesn't directly correlate to my major like others' did, at the end of the exercise I felt just as enthusiastic about it as everyone else felt about theirs. I learned that day, after some encouragement, that while my passions may seem trivial to me other people can sometimes more easily see your importance and remind you. I'm glad I still have my headline to hang in my room and remind me daily of that passion in hopes that someday I can enact that change in the world.
Day 4:
The basis laid out for us for the day was to take the vision we laid out the prior day and formulate steps needed to make that vision a reality. A concept that still rings in my head is to have a "healthy disregard for the impossible." At some steps it seemed my vision was trivial and our co-leaders urged us to silence the voice in our head that would tell us we can't do something. "Healthy" is key here because they obviously don't want us jumping off a cliff believing we can fly after ignoring the voice in our head. Discussions among my family cluster helped me note details I might otherwise have overlooked in the steps toward accomplishing my vision. Cut back to the value of one, the power of all. I filled out the Breakthrough Blueprint I was given as a further plan for my vision. The blueprint had the white page on top and a carbon copy behind it. Our co-leaders were going to collect my original and I would keep a copy for myself. It struck me that LeaderShape was seemingly going to stockpile all our visions. To me that is really cool they'd want to keep a memento from each graduate like that.
Day 5:
Remember how I mentioned integrity as a leadership trait is the glue that holds it all together? It's obviously a very important part because LeaderShape devoted an entire day to Living and Leading with Integrity. We discussed our core values and listed our five most important. My five values are Community, Honesty/Truth, Service, Learning, and Spirituality. Sometimes we as leaders find ourselves in situations that challenge us in one or more of those areas and we must strive to uphold our devotion to our core values. Later that night in our final family cluster meeting, we took time out for one-on-one. The goal was to tell each person something I appreciated about them and something I felt they could work on. Both of these were meant to encourage a positive nature and offer an outside look on how each person can become a more effective leader. I'm not a crier but I definitely felt the emotional atmosphere. I was so thankful for the insights each of my family cluster individuals gave me and happy how my coming out of my shell was recognized by others as a positive trait. I learned that sometimes I need to come out of the shadows and even take charge because I may have more experience and knowledge than others in a certain area.
Day 6:
Our final day was short and sweet, but no less impactful than the rest. Each family cluster presented their own skit they had prepared during the week to showcase one of the seven leadership qualities. We were all urged to carry what we learned out into UC and beyond. The co-leaders held an emotional graduation ceremony and afterward we all hugged each other. A lot.
What we achieved in learning at LeaderShape absolutely exceeded my expectations and I would recommend any student in the University Honors Program to apply. As cheesy as it sounds, I truly believe I am a different person after having completed LeaderShape.
I never expected to leave LeaderShape with 59 close friends and multiple UC faculty contacts. To me the way LeaderShape brought 60 students together to learn and bond in a meaningful way is truly extraordinary. One of the facets the co-leaders of the program continually reminded us of was that we were in a safe place. At the time the concept somewhat went over my head but I can see now how important and foundational it is. Had we not been in a "safe place" none of us would have been able to be vulnerable or share in our conversations. I was able to come out of my shell and become involved with every activity because of the safe place.
Day 1:
Once we arrived at Higher Ground, unpacked, and got settled on the first day we began by picking apart leadership myths like in the top left of the picture. We also started building our definitions of leadership. Many personal insights were offered and then we were introduced to the seven aspects that constitutes an effective leader. These are possibility, vision, relationships, action, integrity, community, and positive change. It was made clear to us how integrity is truly the central aspect that glues everything together. We were then introduced to our "family clusters," designed so that the ten people in each small group to be comfortable with each other throughout the week. I made it a point to be actively involved, which is something I tend to skimp on doing due to my initial shyness among new people. Our group had immediate chemistry and we greatly enjoyed our time together, especially during the process of naming our cluster. After deliberation we decided on Team Pluto because we had the farthest to walk to our meeting place. We also chose Pluto the dog as our mascot and our enormously talented Leah Neff drew him on our poster. We closed that night with a reminder to not only engage each day in the planned activities, but to on your own time reflect. I've never kept a diary but reflecting after each day at LeaderShape is something I'm extremely glad I did because it allowed me to remember all the takeaways and not forget seemingly inconsequential details.
Day 2:
I'm glad I ate a hearty breakfast that day because for about 4 hours we participated in a low ropes course designed by Miami University for team-building. We were split up into groups, not necessarily our family clusters, and taken through each activity by a student facilitator from Miami University. At each activity we were presented with a problem or task we needed to complete. Most times it wouldn't take us much discussion to formulate a plan and execute it together. As we later would learn the theme for the day was The Value of One, The Power of All. Concluding the low ropes course I had developed an understanding of how we needed each other for every task. No one person was left out or unused. We were all valuable and could achieve just about anything together. After lunch the concept of DiSC was introduced. D for dominance, i for Influence, S for Steadiness, and C for Conscientiousness. Each of us filled out a personality test that placed us into one of the four categories. I scored highest under the C category and upon further reading, knew it definitely described me well. A "C" is naturally inclined toward precision and organization as a leader. I know I can tend to act overly perfectionistic. We all read about ourselves through the descriptions on the page for category then reconvened to discuss how each type is crucial to the success of a group. Having too many "D" people in one group can lead to a power struggle, while having all "S" people can lead to stagnation and not accomplishing anything. We highlighted the importance of including every single group member to work toward its overall success.
Day 3:
Vision. That was our theme for the day. After starting the morning with a fun activity of building balloon castles in groups, we started to explore our own ideas in order to help shape a possible future. At first I was stumped and could not for the life of me think of anything. Everyone around me had visions of grandeur like curing diseases, exploring interstellar space travel, and building hospitals in impoverished countries and I had nothing like that. I must have looked overtly stumped because my cluster facilitator sat down to talk with me about my vision. When I came up with nothing she encouraged me to delve into my interests, passions, and talents. I mentioned my passion for music in schools and she told me to run with that. That set the ball rolling for me and soon I had written my own Tomorrow's Headline for our activity (pictured bottom right). Even though my vision doesn't directly correlate to my major like others' did, at the end of the exercise I felt just as enthusiastic about it as everyone else felt about theirs. I learned that day, after some encouragement, that while my passions may seem trivial to me other people can sometimes more easily see your importance and remind you. I'm glad I still have my headline to hang in my room and remind me daily of that passion in hopes that someday I can enact that change in the world.
Day 4:
The basis laid out for us for the day was to take the vision we laid out the prior day and formulate steps needed to make that vision a reality. A concept that still rings in my head is to have a "healthy disregard for the impossible." At some steps it seemed my vision was trivial and our co-leaders urged us to silence the voice in our head that would tell us we can't do something. "Healthy" is key here because they obviously don't want us jumping off a cliff believing we can fly after ignoring the voice in our head. Discussions among my family cluster helped me note details I might otherwise have overlooked in the steps toward accomplishing my vision. Cut back to the value of one, the power of all. I filled out the Breakthrough Blueprint I was given as a further plan for my vision. The blueprint had the white page on top and a carbon copy behind it. Our co-leaders were going to collect my original and I would keep a copy for myself. It struck me that LeaderShape was seemingly going to stockpile all our visions. To me that is really cool they'd want to keep a memento from each graduate like that.
Day 5:
Remember how I mentioned integrity as a leadership trait is the glue that holds it all together? It's obviously a very important part because LeaderShape devoted an entire day to Living and Leading with Integrity. We discussed our core values and listed our five most important. My five values are Community, Honesty/Truth, Service, Learning, and Spirituality. Sometimes we as leaders find ourselves in situations that challenge us in one or more of those areas and we must strive to uphold our devotion to our core values. Later that night in our final family cluster meeting, we took time out for one-on-one. The goal was to tell each person something I appreciated about them and something I felt they could work on. Both of these were meant to encourage a positive nature and offer an outside look on how each person can become a more effective leader. I'm not a crier but I definitely felt the emotional atmosphere. I was so thankful for the insights each of my family cluster individuals gave me and happy how my coming out of my shell was recognized by others as a positive trait. I learned that sometimes I need to come out of the shadows and even take charge because I may have more experience and knowledge than others in a certain area.
Day 6:
Our final day was short and sweet, but no less impactful than the rest. Each family cluster presented their own skit they had prepared during the week to showcase one of the seven leadership qualities. We were all urged to carry what we learned out into UC and beyond. The co-leaders held an emotional graduation ceremony and afterward we all hugged each other. A lot.
What we achieved in learning at LeaderShape absolutely exceeded my expectations and I would recommend any student in the University Honors Program to apply. As cheesy as it sounds, I truly believe I am a different person after having completed LeaderShape.