As a freshman, I thought leadership experiences would be few and far between for me, and that joining organizations would allow for me to work my way up to those leadership experiences during my Junior or Senior Year, and boy was I wrong.
I suppose I've learned that having expectations is one of those things that is necessary, yet mine always seem to get blown out of the water. During my first quarter at Ohio State, I joined the Campus EMS Auxillary, Block "O", and The Ohio State Dodgeball Syndacite. I joined the Ohio State Relay for Life Committee, giving me one of my first leadership roles here. I also got a job at the Schottenstein Center, allowing for more leadership experiences, however none of these have helped me grow as a person as much as Gaga for Ga-Ga has.
Now before everyone starts assuming that I'm a part of a Lady Gaga club, let me explain. Gaga for Ga-Ga is NOT a Lady Gaga organization. We are a sports-based organization that teaches and plays the game for ga-ga twice a week in the Racquetball Courts in the RPAC. Basically, the game goes like this: Everyone must remain on a wall until the ball (we just use a volleyball) is thrown in the air and hits the ground three times. After that, its a crazy free-for-all, with players smacking the ball with an open hand in an attempt to hit other players below the knee to get them out. The last person standing, wins.
The game is awesome, and being one of the co-founders of the club, I'm obviously passionate about it. However, Gaga for Ga-Ga has more benefits for me than just the fun of the club, although thats a big part of it. This organization has taught me more about being a leader than almost any of the other experiences I've had in my life. And most importantly, this has been the role that has most helped me develop my Authentic Leadership.
However, since our class is on the topic of Relational Leadership, I'll concentrate on that. First, let me say that I hate the term relational leadership. As many who come before me, and many who come after me will say, relational leadership is completely redundent. You cannot have leadership without fostering relationships. Period.
The Relational Leadership Model outlines five key components: Purpose, Inclusion, Empowerment, Ethics, and Process Orientation. Over the course of the year, I have been working at developing each and every one of these skills, however I'll just outline how I was at the start of the year, and how I am now, as obviously the goal is to perfect my skills in each of these areas.
At the start of this year, I came in with an immense amount of leadership experience for an 18-year-old (hey, I'm aloud to toot my own horn everyone once and a while, right?). Because of this, I immedietly accepted the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of the organization. Little did I know the commitment and change that I would go through when I accepted the role, but alas, I have no regrets. I was very strong in Inclusion (making sure everyone gets involved) and Ethics (making sure things abide by my established morals and values.) I had been steadily working on Purpose (doing things of the future and setting goals and all that) and Empowerment (motivating and sharing information), however I was not so good at Process Orientation (collaberation and feedback from others).
Reflecting back, I can proudly say that I've grown in each and every one of these areas, however, there's always room for improvement. Seemingly, my Inclusion methods and Ethics haven't really changed, which makes sense to me. Camp Christopher (see my previous post for more information on that) promotes great amounts of inclusion, and I naturally carried that over to Ohio State, and Ethics are something that shouldn't be influenced by others, and are grown from your family life and your spiritual life, both things that haven't really changed. Empowerment is that component that I've worked the most on, and while I have improved, I know there's still a lot of room to improve.
My motivation for working the most on Empowerment has been sorta selfish, however its for the good of the organization. I wanted to get the organization to the point that it can survive without me, and that means empowering my four other officer to take initive on their own accord, and not just beacuse I'm pushing them to do something. I've also greatly improved on Process Orientation. I've found that looking for the feedback and collaberation of others, instead of just doing everything myself, has allowed for me to build on Empowerment, as well as has made the other officers more effictive team members, and they know that they have a say in what goes on. It's using this that allows me to build a democratic leadership style, instead of the autocratic style that I've used for most of the first quarter. Finally, Purpose is something that I've neglected in the past, but slowly but surly I'm realizing that it plays an extremely important part of running an organization. Depending on how you use it, it's the reason that we're there, the reason that we commit all this time to a specific purpose (get it?), and its the one thing that puts everything back in perspective. Even though we're not looking months or years ahead, we're still planning out a few weeks, which is definetly progress.
Overall, I know that Relational Leadership, while redundent, is one of the most important, if not the most important leadership concepts out there. It puts the humbling perspective into people, that they can't do it alone. That we're only effective leaders because we surround ourselves with some of the best people around. That a leader is only as good as their support system. Think about it.
From every summer since 2005, I have spent at least one week at one of my favorite places in the world: Camp Christopher. After 5 years of camping, I decided to make the leap from camper to staff member. Little did I know that this seemingly small decision would change the way I saw the world.
From a leadership perspective, Camp Christopher is the one place that I have grown and matured most in my entire life. This close-knit community consists of about 60 staff members, including about 30 counselors, as well as over 2500 campers (aged 2-82 at family camp, 7-17 at resident camp) over the course of the summer. You may be thinking, how in the world can a community of over 2500 people be close knit? Well, firstly, these campers are broken up among 10 different sessions, meaning that 2500:60 (or about 42:1) ratio just changed to 250:60 (or about 4:1.) With ratios like that, you can beat that each and every camper receives an extremely close and personal connection to many of the staff members, but most importantly, the counselors.
Obviously, ethics are something that are extremely important in this environment is well, however especially more in a resident camp environment. Parents are trusting us with their kids, their most prized possession, and they expect us to not only abide by an extremely strict code of ethics, but also to provide inclusion, a strong-willed environment, and friendships that last a lifetime. These are very high expectations, but I have NEVER had a week (knock on wood) where each and every counselor at Camp Christopher has meet and exceeded these expectations.
There is something that the campers will never see, however, and that is the immense amount of background work and training that counselors go through in order to be the best that they can be. We are taught to continually motivate and empower the campers and other staff members on a daily basis. We are taught to make life-changing, split second decisions, not to benefit ourselves, but to benefit others. That could mean sacrificing sleep to stay up with a camper who is missing home, or giving up the last brownie to the kid who has already had 5. We constantly share power and authority with each other, as the camp functions as a team, not as individual units. We constantly feed off of each others energy and ideas, and that is how we become great, as opposed to only good.
You may be thinking, how in the world does all of this relate to leadership? Well, lets sum it all up: Camp Christopher is said to be a place to grow in nature, community, and spirit. All of these are extremely important qualities of a leader. A leader must understand the world around them (nature), and how to work with it, and not against it. A leader must understand their followers (community), as they are the ones they are in direct contact with and the ones that, at the end of the day, matter most. A leader must also understand themselves (spirit), because if you can't understand what you're doing, and who you are, you can't change, adapt, and grow in a positive manner.
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One the first day of camp, a co-worker (we just call thems co's) and I wake up early and head over to the dining hall for our pre-camp meeting. Its going to be a big week. We're expecting a full house, or just over 300 campers, to roll through the gates just fours hours after our meeting begins. Expectations are high, and stamina is running low. Its the 7th week in a row that we're doing this, and many are tired, hungry, or both. But we can't show it. This week must be as good, if not better, than every other week before it. And everyone knows it.
We get our rosters for the week, and our hope and optimism rises. We recognize some names, while others are new, a great sign. Everyone is cautiously optimistic for the week, except for the counselor stuck with 16 8-year-old girls for the week. But even she will hope for a good cabin, and will try her hardest to make the best of a bad situation.
This is the only time of the week where I still get jitters. I have no idea what to expect, as I have been given cabins full of angels, as well as cabins full of devils. However, no matter what, it is my duty to enstill hope and optimism for the week in all of the parents and campers that I will meet that day. The only way I know how to do this is to be sincere and genuine with everyone I encounter, as well to have hope and optimism for the week myself. I am a reflection of my emotions, and my campers reflect me. So as long as I am happy, joyous, cheerful, and fun, my campers will be too, in most cases.
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the change these kids encounter in such a short amount of time. I know how it feels, I did it too. These kids are dropped off by their parents to sleep for six nights in an old cabins full of a bunch of kids they've never met before. They're without the support system of Mom and Dad, and are truly on their own for one of the first times in their lives. However, they're really not on their own. As counselors, we not only provide a "brother figure" (I hate saying father or mother figure, as no one can replace their parents), but foster friendship and brotherhood between all of the campers. Some of these kids come from not-so-good background, but we constantly involve everyone in everything, and we have a blast. For one week, they can forget Facebook, school, the internet, bullying, rejection, and bordem. It is this grass-roots childhood that we build and foster, and allow to grow and run wild. We are encourage, thoughtful, and there with them every step of the way.
In every leadership experience I have ever encountered since I started working at Camp Christopher, I have noticed a change. I am different, I am stronger, and I am better. In summary, remember the title of this blog, derived from former Camp Director Herb McGuire. In order to be an effective leader and person, you put your God First, Others Second, and I Am Third.
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