Two summers ago I took a class that is required to receive a Masters Degree in Lakota Leadership and Management at the Oglala Lakota College. The class was "Lakota Foundation for Leadership". It was an excellent class taught by a very skilled and knowledgeable instructor that I thoroughly enjoyed. The following is part of an essay that was a required assignment for the class. I mention two books that I recommend for anyone interested in the topic of leadership.
Lakota Foundation for Leadership/Management
06 July 2007
Essay
At the beginning of the class my understanding of leadership was basically in regards to what traits and values a good leader should have. I believed that great leaders were “servants” to their people and how a person achieved this altruistic ability was what we would be covering in the class. I also thought the Lakota concepts of Leadership would be the main area of study.
I still believe in the idea of the “servant leader” but my understanding of leadership has significantly expanded. Both books, Leadership Without Easy Answers (1994) by Ronald Heifetz and Real Leadership: Helping People and Organizations Face Their Toughest Challenges (2005) by Dean Williams gave me tremendous insight into what a leader had to do when dealing with difficult situations. The examples they used were excellent. I learned about the idea of adaptive work and how it’s a leader’s responsibility to find ways to help their followers began the process. The idea of real leadership requires getting people to face reality and dealing with tough problems was not new – but many of the ideas on how to accomplish this were. The manner in which both Heifetz and Williams broke the process down into understandable concepts gave me a better understanding of the role of leadership.
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