Lead Your Way to the Top
Michael Steinert
Issue date: 3/2/10 Section: Greek Life
A couple weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to attend a leadership summit at Grand Valley State University. The keynote speaker, Rick Barnes, was a past president of the Association of Fraternity Advisors and I felt his speech was unsurpassed by any other presenter at the event.
Before I explain how Rick set the bar so high, I'll note that I was awake at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday. I was ready to go back home and sleep. That is, until Rick Barnes spoke. He sympathized with us for being up so early on a Saturday and then demonstrated the five requirements needed to be a good leader he was presenting on: strength, creativity, a magnetic personality, character, and the ability to share. He was able to present to college students material not needed for a degree in a manner that held my attention early in the morning.
Following his first presentation, I decided to attend his other two, one about Greek leadership, and the other about leadership in general. His Greek presentation was about breaking the stereotypes facing Greeks. Ironically and fortunately, very little applied to my experience here at Kettering. Our Greek system faces stereotypes, but compared to the problems Greeks on other campuses face, Kettering's problems are very mild and often unique to Kettering, such as A and B section rivalries.
In his last presentation, Rick emphasized confrontation which I found to be the most useful being a non-confrontational person. He covered multiple aspects I never even thought of such as where, when, and who is doing the confronting as well as the language used, and cooperation of both the confronter and the confronted. Again he managed to keep my attention for an entire hour of speaking with no interaction on my part.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Grand Valley and would strongly encourage others to attend next year. Despite my attendance being simply about Greek life, the summit also has presentations about campus wide programming, interculturalism, leadership development, Greek life, advising, civic engagement, athletics, and student government. The speakers at this event covered important topics pertaining to almost anyone. I found this event so useful that I plan on attending in future years.
Before I explain how Rick set the bar so high, I'll note that I was awake at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday. I was ready to go back home and sleep. That is, until Rick Barnes spoke. He sympathized with us for being up so early on a Saturday and then demonstrated the five requirements needed to be a good leader he was presenting on: strength, creativity, a magnetic personality, character, and the ability to share. He was able to present to college students material not needed for a degree in a manner that held my attention early in the morning.
Following his first presentation, I decided to attend his other two, one about Greek leadership, and the other about leadership in general. His Greek presentation was about breaking the stereotypes facing Greeks. Ironically and fortunately, very little applied to my experience here at Kettering. Our Greek system faces stereotypes, but compared to the problems Greeks on other campuses face, Kettering's problems are very mild and often unique to Kettering, such as A and B section rivalries.
In his last presentation, Rick emphasized confrontation which I found to be the most useful being a non-confrontational person. He covered multiple aspects I never even thought of such as where, when, and who is doing the confronting as well as the language used, and cooperation of both the confronter and the confronted. Again he managed to keep my attention for an entire hour of speaking with no interaction on my part.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Grand Valley and would strongly encourage others to attend next year. Despite my attendance being simply about Greek life, the summit also has presentations about campus wide programming, interculturalism, leadership development, Greek life, advising, civic engagement, athletics, and student government. The speakers at this event covered important topics pertaining to almost anyone. I found this event so useful that I plan on attending in future years.
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