Yellow Springs Leadership Institute
Leadership Yellow Springs - Program Summary
INTRODUCTION - GOAL - PRINCIPLES - ORGANIZATION - PRINCIPLES OF TRAINING - CURRICULUM OVERVIEW - CANDIDATE POOL - CANDIDATE ADMISSION - PERSONNEL
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."
-John F. Kennedy
The village of Yellow Springs, like most communities, continually faces a variety of challenges – cultural, educational, political, social, civic and economic. Effective leadership is essential to providing effective solutions to these challenges. We are a diverse community, celebrate that diversity and want to preserve it. However, this diversity creates special challenges to our leaders – it is simply much easier to lead a group who are of essentially one mind than it is to lead a group of widely different viewpoints, life experience and objectives.
In addition, the difficulty of finding effective leaders is greater for a small community, such as Yellow Springs, than for larger communities, because we face many of the same basic problems, but we have a disproportionately smaller pool of resources to call upon to help provide solutions to those problems.
Experience, education and training are generally regarded as essential to developing effective leaders. In recognition of the validity of this conclusion, communities, large and small, throughout the county have developed or are developing leadership programs that provide these fundamentals for both current and future community leaders.
Leadership Yellow Springs is such a leadership program, designed to provide training in basic leadership skills and techniques, as well as, training in specific topics that are pertinent to the various leadership roles in the community.
The Goal of the Leadership Institute of Yellow Springs is to promote community welfare by increasing the involvement of all its citizens in the community, and by developing for its charitable, civic, cultural, economic, educational, religious, public service, and social organizations good leaders who:
Good leaders are those whose actions are grounded in a commitment to stewardship, trusteeship and service to the organization and the larger community. The deeply held values and qualities that guide their behavior include:
The following are the principles upon which the Program is based:
Leadership Yellow Springs is provided by the Yellow Springs Leadership Institute (which has been granted 501(c)(3) status). Policy matters and overall direction are provided by a governing Board of Trustees, supported by Operating, Finance, Enrollment, Curriculum and Nominating committees. The Board and committees are staffed by volunteers.
The following are the principles on which the training is based:
The overall objective of the curriculum is to stimulate ongoing involvement in the community and the pursuit of deeper understanding, appreciation and application of leadership skills.
Participants begin with an orientation session (What it means to be a leader, below) designed to last one full day and guided by experienced training facilitators. They initially explore core concepts of good community leadership and the qualities of leaders that make them effective in volunteer-based organizations. These concepts are subsequently interwoven and illustrated throughout the Program. The initial session also includes facilitated self-awareness, and self-assessment activities designed to help participants relate their personal perspectives and interests to effective group interactions. Participants formulate and share personal goals for the Program and create an individual learning plan.
Subsequent sessions focus on specific leadership skills and practices, highlighting their application through group learning activities.
The Program’s seven modules are:
Introduction to tools for more effective communication; collaborative techniques and interaction skills critical to the effective leader within a diverse group.
The focus here is on community and civic organizations, their mission and structure. Participants also identify gaps and overlaps in community services. A directory of community services is being assembled by the group.
Focus here is on recognizing conflict, key contributors to group conflict and using tools and techniques for managing group conflict.
Focus in this module is on the practical skills of setting an agenda and meeting planning; parliamentary procedure; tools to use in analyzing a situation; tools for group decision making and models to assist in meeting the challenge of internal and external change impacting their group.
This module emphasizes legal requirements governing non-profit groups, building and using a budget to guide group activity, evaluating an organization’s financial situation, and decision-making models.
Introduction to tools and techniques for managing multiple priorities and projects.
This session provides the participant an opportunity to evaluate the Program, identify individual successes throughout the course of the Program and identify the next steps for each individual.
Specific leadership skills are explored in the context of community organizations in these sessions so that at the end of the Program, participants will be familiar with various organizations in the Yellow Springs area and will have an understanding of the way these organizations function and interrelate. These topical sessions utilize group interactions and learning activities guided by facilitators with expertise in the particular topic being studied. There is also a variable amount of independent small group and individual study required as preparation for or follow-up to each formal session.
At the close of the Program, the participant will have developed an appreciation of the critical role leadership plays in community life, will have acquired skills important to leaders of organizations, will have created a network of relationships with other leaders, and will have built a personal library of resource information and materials. All of these will be immediately useful in making a positive contribution to community.
Introduced in the first session, a person provided by the Program, but neither a participant in the leadership training nor a training facilitator will be designated as Process Observer. This person is responsible for observing the dynamics of the process (as opposed to the content discussed) the group follows during each session and then, at the end of each session, facilitates a brief process review. This structures an opportunity for practicing communication, analysis, self- reflection, facilitation, presentation skills and conflict management within the context of the group itself. This role provides the foundation for the group as a facilitated learning laboratory and will provide continuity between sessions, progressive self-evaluation and feedback for participants. The intent is to not only assist the group in self-assessment, but to model what "reflective practitioners" do (or should do) as an ongoing part of their leadership responsibilities.
The pool of potential participants is relatively large and very diverse and encompasses all economic levels, interests and ages from high school through retirees. There are more than 100 organizations in the community whose functions will be enhanced by the skillful participation of their members. Assuming that many of these could benefit from this training, the pool of existing leaders, alone, provides a substantial list of potential attendees.
An objective process is used to identify candidates from the candidate pool. Three mechanisms are utilized.
Factors used in acceptance include:
Most of the day-to-day operations are carried out by volunteers. Experienced leaders in the community and the region are invited to help in mentoring participants.