On Wednesday August 5th, 2015, LLSP 2015 participants continued their education in leadership skills, discussing qualities of effective leaders with Dean Okianer Dark. Students participated in a discussion with Dean Okianer Dark about the qualities that constitute effective leadership, leaders who serve as examples to participants, and how leadership qualities may differ between men and women. After describing her own experience developing her leadership skills, Dean Dark asked participants to identify leadership characteristics they admire, based on their own experiences. Students shared their stories with one another and found that they regard many of the same leadership qualities as essential to effective leadership, including humility, decisiveness, and inclusiveness. Afterwards, Dean Dark gave her own “21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader,” sharing many traits in common with the list compiled by students. She then discussed with students the question: “are leadership qualities for men and women the same?” examining quotes from female CEOs, and what those quotes reflect about leadership roles and expectations for women. She encouraged participants to support other women leaders. She remarked that encouraging other women to lead “is the only way…this is how we support women, promote women in leadership.” Dean Dark finished her discussion of leadership with her “Template for Success” which included the following tenets of leadership: leadership centered in faith, conscientiousness, character, courage, communication, community service, and taking care of yourself. At the end of her discussion, participants shared their reflections on Dean Dark’s class. One student said, “I appreciate your vulnerability to be willing to say: ‘here’s this life experience that has happened to me,’ because I think so often it’s so easy to put up a wall, but your openness…I think that it imparted a greater knowledge to me.”
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