Change Your Perspective
By Dana Kahati
Dana Kahati is a marketing and communications intern at the International Leadership Association. She recently graduated with a degree in communications from the University of Maryland College Park and looks forward to starting law school later this year.
2017 brings exciting new additions to ILA’s Leadership Perspectives webinar series. Intended to promote a richer understanding of leadership knowledge and practice, the series offers new research, experiential knowledge, and best practices presented by experts from around the world. Each webinar delivers relevant and impactful learning outcomes to its audience.
History
Leadership Perspectives began in September 2007 through the efforts of ILA’s Applied Leadership (now Leadership Development) and Business Leadership Member Interest Groups (MIGs) and the support of Oracle, an ILA group member. “How to Make Your Organization a Talent Factory,” with world-renowned thought leader Jay Conger, was by all counts an overwhelming success. One hundred and twenty members from all over the world tuned in to the first webinar, reaching audience members in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, New Zealand, South America, the U.S., and Canada. While we had a few technical hiccups recording our first webinar, it is available online for all to listen to on-demand.
As of this writing, the series has delivered 80 webinars to ILA members (and to non-members who choose to pay a fee) including ones with Warren Bennis, Steve Denning, Barbara Kellerman, Donna Ladkin, Eboo Patel, Dave Ulrich, Michael Useem, Meg Wheatley, Jack Zenger and many other top thinkers and doers in the leadership world. Most webinars were recorded and are available to ILA members in our members-only online archive
2017 Series and Beyond
I sat down with Anita Marsh, ILA’s Membership Manager and the current coordinator for Leadership Perspectives, and asked her to share her perspectives on the series. “ILA’s online seminars give our global network an opportunity to give, receive, and discuss topics on leadership. This interactive member program provides information and materials on cutting-edge research, thoughts, and practices within the leadership field.”
Marsh also shared the inspiration behind her programming philosophy for Leadership Perspectives, which stems from her passion to assist ILA members in their work. “I want to offer ILA members a series full of valuable information to help them do the work that they do in the field. My hope is that audience members receive the information, connect with the presenter and their knowledge of the subject, and share the information with others.”
Marsh’s dedication is in evidence when one considers the slate of presenters already in the lineup for 2017. With two webinars already completed, over the next three months ILA members can look forward to these four upcoming presentations:
- Leading Transformational Change – A Compass for Better Co-Creation with Petra Kuenkel on 15 March,
- Positive Academic Leadership with Jeffrey L. Buller on 5 April,
- Social Identity Formation and Leadership Emergence in the Pauline Mission with Jack Barensten on 19 April, and
- Visionary Leadership in a Turbulent World: Thriving in the New VUCA Context with Rob Elkington on 10 May.
Leadership Perspectives has not only received positive feedback from ILA members and staff, but also from presenters in the series. Ed Schein, presenter of The Changing Role of Leadership and the Need for Humble Leadership, and renowned leadership researcher, writer, teacher, and consultant, commented:
This seminar was a very meaningful opportunity to think out loud about what is happening in the world that will profoundly influence not only what leaders in formal power positions will face but what leadership in the broader sense will even mean when we apply it to the spontaneous acts of leadership that will occur in the networks and in various groups. I think it will be time to differentiate types of leadership to conform to the many different situations that formal leaders and working groups will face as technologies and social problems become more complex and unpredictable. This might be a perfect time for the ILA to launch a series of reflections on what leadership means in these modern times and whether we really need to think about the many different forms of leadership that will be increasingly demanded.
Susan Komives, presenter of 20 Years of the Social Change Model of Leadership Development: Reflections and Projections and Professor Emerita of Student Affairs at the University of Maryland stated:
In 2016, the Social Change Model of Leadership Development celebrated 20 years of use in college student leadership. Leadership educators in nearly a dozen countries use this model and it had been translated in Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. I was thrilled that the Leadership Scholarship MIG sponsored a webinar last October celebrating those 20 years. The ILA webinar allowed us to bring the latest research and uses of the model to international leadership educators through ILA.
Linda Fisher Thornton, presenter of Seeing “Good Leadership” Through 7 Lenses of Ethical Responsibility and Founder and CEO of Leading in Context LLC, shared. “It was an honor to present the ILA Leadership Perspectives webinar on the ethical leadership framework from my book 7 Lenses. I have enjoyed learning from ILA Webinar presenters over the years and enjoyed sharing what I have learned through my research with others in the field. Webinar participants submitted great questions about applying the 7-dimensional framework in their setting.”
We look forward to announcing additional webinars in the 2017 series as we continue to grow and experiment with presentation formats and delivery platforms. Not one to rest on her laurels, ILA’s webinar successes drive Anita to find new and interesting topics to bring to members. If, like Linda Fisher Thornton, you would like to make the leap from webinar participant to webinar presenter, please contact Anita with your idea at amarsh@ila-net.org. She is particularly interested in having more webinars on the intersection of leadership theory and practice as well as on leadership within different types of organizations such as volunteer organizations, churches, and schools.
To learn more about ILA’s Leadership Perspectives webinar series or to register for one of the forthcoming webinars listed above, please visit: www.ila-net.org/webinars/.
P.S. We hope you like our new branding (below), which brings a fresh feel and, dare we say, perspective, to the series!
