Mentoring in an Expanded Definition of Leadership
MIke Giancola explains the importance of mentoring in an expanded definition of leadership that includes an emphasis on diversity.
Interview on 2012-03-26 00:00:00 -0400
Transcript
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But in leadership it's absolutely critical that you have someone that can mentor you through that process,
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especially for students that maybe traditionally haven't been given those opportunities, whether they be women or students of color or GLBT students.
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It's not enough just to say you can be a leader but we need to make sure that we have mentors from those communities and allies of those communities to really help them see that there is a path forward
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and that their voice is important and their contribution is valued, and frankly expected.
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We want everyone to feel like they're a part of this. The other thing that I say is that the leadership table is much larger than we've given voice to over the years
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because if you think back throughout history, not just at this institution and this country but around the world, we've had a very narrowing definition of leadership.
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We said you had to look a certain way and you had to look more like me than like you. You had to be, you know, skin color of a certain way. That's such a limiting way of looking at leadership.
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So when I teach leadership I say the table of leadership is really wide open because the only thing you have to have to be a leader-this is slightly overstating it-is a passion to make change
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and the ability to try to engage people in that process.
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That says nothing about your gender, your sexual orientation, your race/ethnicity, where you were born, or how much money's in your bank account.
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It says that you have an idea that you're passionate about and willing to work hard to work with others to make that happen.
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