March 2, 2011-The BYU Management Society’s BYU–Hawaii chapter and the AMPS marketing club co-hosted a special forum with Dr. Robert Quinn, a professor in the School of Business at the University of Michigan. The BYU Management Society hosts forums on campus as a means of working toward their vision of growing moral and ethical leadership around the world. Dr. Quinn entitled his remarks “The Fundamental State of Leadership: How to Make a Difference Wherever You Are”. The forum followed a day after he spoke in the campus devotional. Follow this link to read the transcript of Dr. Quinn’s Devotional address.
Perceptions of Leadership
Dr. Quinn spoke about changing our perceptions of those around us and of life in general to more effectively work with one another. He spoke about how we often confuse titles with leaders, and we only consider those with distinguished titles as leaders.
“When we use the word leadership in our everyday language, we are usually talking about positions. I want to suggest to you that my bias is very different from that. I believe everyone in this room is a leader.” He went on to say that it does not matter what your title or position is, you are exerting some influence on those around you. Whether the influence is good or bad, it is an influence.
In reality, every person can be a leader in any situation; they can be leaders in following other leaders. Someone who listens to and follows instructions when it is not the popular thing to do is influencing those around them to do the same. In the same situation, someone who complains or does not comply is also influencing others.
Post-Traumatic Growth
A story is told of an entrepreneur who risked nearly everything he had for a business idea, and failed. The experience served as an awakening for him, his perceptions of what he needed to be and how he needed to appear to others ceased to exist, and he began to be the person that he wanted to be, after enduring what he called his “ego-death”.
Traumatic experiences happen to anyone and everyone. How we choose to react however, defines the kind of person we are. “I can get down on the floor in the fetal position, or get really bitter and shake my fist, or I could grow with it,” said Quinn. He then gave the following two points relating to post-traumatic growth:
- People who go through post-traumatic growth have a renewed sense of priority, a deeper sense of meaning. They shift out of the victim mentality.
- They have an increased sense of self-efficacy, increased self confidence, closer ties with people, and they increase self-disclosure. Also, increased emotional expressiveness, increased compassion, increased generosity, and awareness of one’s own vulnerability in mortality.
These trying and challenging experiences can be defining, empowering, and liberating as they have the potential to shed our outer façade, and reveal what is within if we allow them to. Dr. Quinn shared that spiritual experiences can have similar effects on us, allowing us to change for the better. While spiritual experiences are not necessarily traumatic, traumatic experiences can indeed be spiritual.
Comfort Zones He concluded his forum by discussing how people often put themselves or find themselves within ruts of comfort zones. He asked one of the students in the audience to stand up and sing. She refused. Because, as the speaker pointed out her comfort zone was being in her chair, listening to the forum. He said we act similarly in work or educational situations. But, in order to create something we must be committed in whatever organization we are in. If we are comfortable, we avoid confrontation and conflict at all possible costs. But, when we become committed, we often see how these conflicts are necessary and can result in something better.
“When we take the path of least resistance, it’s those points of conflict that determine the riverbed,” concluded Quinn. “But when you are committed, you determine your own riverbed.”
Photos by Roger Brown.