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

00:00:00.000 But in leadership it's absolutely critical that you have someone that can mentor you through that process,
00:00:07.176 especially for students that maybe traditionally haven't been given those opportunities, whether they be women or students of color or GLBT students.
00:00:17.360 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
00:00:29.820 and that their voice is important and their contribution is valued, and frankly expected.
00:00:35.282 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
00:00:44.270 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.
00:00:53.538 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.
00:01:05.025 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
00:01:16.824 and the ability to try to engage people in that process.
00:01:19.534 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.
00:01:27.499 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.