LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM 2013-2015

SEMINAR REFLECTIVE SUMMARY

SEMINAR TOPIC: Situational Leadership and Strategic Thinking
PARTICIPANTS NAME: Dana L. Sawyer
1.

What were the significant learning points for you in this seminar?

This seminar was excellent as the speaker has vast knowledge of the topic and presented it in a very
organized and meaningful way. The significant learning points for me were that we all should be doing both
short and long-term planning using critical thinking skills, that in order to shape our future we have to be in
control of how we manage ourselves to ultimately create choices and that strategic thinking can be
maximized with creativity and preparation. To think strategically, we may need to narrow down tasks within
context, have an element of planfulness and be 'threat and opportunity hunters'. We learned about thinking
vs acting and and working without thinking as well. It was interesting to consider what type of leader I am,
and in turn think about how to be more strategic in my actions. That is something I need to work on - to do
less 'work' that others can do and more 'thinking' or planning to solve tomorrow's problems.

2.

In what ways is each learning point supportive of or relevant to your ideas about leadership?

Leadership is all about people, vision and development. It is the what and how - and we all need ot
have humility to be a good leader. Effective leaders also have to have an attitude of wisdom and know that
different situations may call for different leadership styles. Situational leadership allows for flexibility and
individual level needs being met of those that you supervise. Any good leader can readily move back and
forth between leadership styles depending on the circumstances, and it is so important that they take care of
themselves both physically and emotionally in order to do good by others. Maintaining a good balance
between work life and personal life is not easy to do, but I have come to learn that it is essential to growing
as a leader, as well as helping to create a learning organization. Being a strategic thinker is a skill that is
learned and honed throughout someone's lifetime, but is absolutely key to be effective leaders in any
organization. Having thought of potential secondary consequences to actions, and then subsequently being
planful around those potentialities is important - and to think through the nuances of any given situation is
extremely vital to ensuring your organization remains responsive and respected.

3.

Identify a way to apply each of these learning points to your current role at the College.
The presenter spoke about what type of strategic thinkers we can be, and how change impacts our
ability to do so on any given day. The four types of strategic thinkers (operator, inventor, planner and
strategist) were interesting to learn about and I see myself as evolving from a inventor to a planner. I
need to delegate effectively more and spend more time strategizing and planning rather than always
putting out fires. Strategic thinking is all about preparedness, gathering information or 'intelligence',
analyzing our capabilities, charting a course of action, mobilizing ourselves to do good work and the then
sustain what we have done. This seminar provided a lot of really good information that I can use
throughout my career and really made me contemplate my styles and preferences as they affect my daily
life.