Prior to the ITE Technical Conference held in March in Miami, the LeadershipITE class participated in two webinars; first, building effective relationships with elected officials, and second, outclassing the competition. The ITE Technical Conference was the setting for the second in-person meeting of the LeadershipITE class. The weekend of leadership training began with some self-assessments on our personal leadership strategy and competencies.
Over the course of the weekend, we learned about the leadership strategy cycle that includes Intent or stating the purpose, Behavior or defining/modeling desired behavior, Effect or monitoring the progress, and finally Adjustment which is key to leadership. Adjustment is needed more times than not because our initial plans rarely are perfect. Having the skill to monitor or observe, and then adjust the plan accordingly makes a more successful leader. Next we learned about leadership competencies – Attention, Meaning, Trust, and Self. Our facilitator, Glenn Tecker, described the Management of Trust as the ‘residue of promises kept; without trust, who will follow?’ We evaluated ourselves through each of these competencies to identify areas we need to improve.
We also learned about negotiation, problem solving and conflict resolution. To practice skills we learned, we role played in small groups of a situation with a difficult employee. It was entertaining as we played up the roles in the situation. We ended class with a session on facilitation. We learned techniques for how to promote discussion among all group participants so that all voices are heard and have a chance to share their input. Facilitating groups might mean you are working to gain consensus. We learned techniques on how to reach consensus, but more importantly to recognize when consensus is reached.
We were allowed a session at the technical conference session to share our group project progress. This was a very useful session for the LeadershipITE participants. Those attending the session to listen were very open to hear our thoughts and ideas, and more importantly to share their feedback with us and to question some of our statements that helped invoke more thought and consideration. Several people encouraged our groups to seek additional feedback from other district and section groups. It was refreshing to see these leaders within our Institute acknowledge the energy and passion the LeadershipITE participants brought to the group projects.
The biggest takeaway for me from both in-person sessions is the networking and relationship building opportunity. My classmates are truly passionate individuals looking to make ITE better for its members. Everyone in the class wants to see the Institute grow in membership and serve a wide variety of stakeholders. We all see the need to respond to our memberships’ needs in nontraditional ways. We share ideas and observations about our sections, districts, and Institute. We are building trust and confidence in each other that will serve us for many years to come in both our professional and our personal lives.
I am very grateful for the financial support the Texas District, the Greater Fort Worth Section, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute have given me to participate in LeadershipITE. This leadership program has been very informative and formative for me.
