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The 2008 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation

By Kamal Singh Masuta
Manager, Internet & Creative Services 

The deadline for the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation is July 15th, and quickly approaching.  The Drucker Institute, which administers the award, encourages all interested nonprofits to submit applications ASAP.  The award, administered annually since 1991, is granted to a social sector organization that demonstrates Drucker's definition of innovation—change that creates a new dimension of performance. The winner will receive the $35,000 first prize, with $7,500 for second place and $5,000 for third place. To download an application, please go to the Drucker Institute website.

Widely considered the father of modern management, Peter Drucker not only consulted for major corporations, he advised the Girl Scouts of America, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and countless other social-sector organizations. He called the nonprofit "America's most distinctive institution."

The past two winners of the Drucker Award include the "Made in NY" Production Assistant Training Program, which launches unemployed and low-income New Yorkers in careers in film and television production, and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, which trains detained immigrants to navigate often unfamiliar and complex legal systems.

For further details, please contact Christina Johnson (Program Manager, The Drucker Institute) at christina.johnson@cgu.edu.


Webcast: Helping Successful Leaders Get Even Better!

By Robert Falcey
Acting President & Chief Executive Officer

We recently collaborated with The Conference Board to offer a webcast featuring Marshall Goldsmith, a longtime Leader to Leader Institute Board member and our Chairman, Frances Hesselbein. As Marshall says, top companies understand that sustaining peak performance requires commitment to developing leaders. More companies are taking note of research showing that companies that excel at this tend to achieve higher long-term profitability. There are plenty of successful leaders out there; Marshall and Frances spent 1.5 hours talking about how to help them become even more successful. This PDF of the slides used in the webcast will give you a high level look at what they discussed.

slides.pdf (409.91 kb)

As I listened to the webcast, I considered some interesting facts. The leadership development theories that are taught by top thought leaders are already well known by successful leaders. The challenge, then, is not a lack of understanding. Rather, the challenge is for leaders to use this understanding in their day-to-day work. This disconnect between theory and practice is hardly limited to the office. Most people know they should exercise. Of those people, plenty take that understanding and make a decision to join a gym or buy an exercise video. Of the people that join the gym or buy the video, how many stick with their exercise schedule 6 months down the line? There are many things we should be doing in our lives, and we know it. Only those who bring this understanding into their practical lives will succeed, whether we are talking about leadership development, personal health or something else important to us.

Here’s some research on this topic. Thanks to Marshall Goldsmith for letting us offer this to our readers for free.

leadership_is_a_contact_sport.pdf (99.89 kb)


An Adventure in Global Ethics

The first adventure was “The Oxford Conclave on Global Ethics:  The Changing University Presidency” held at Balliol College, Oxford University, England in September 2005.  Chaired by Dr. Betty Siegel, President Emeritus and Distinguished Chair of Leadership, Ethics and Character, Kennesaw State University, Georgia, six presidents of American state universities, with teams of vice presidents and deans from their own campuses gathered to discuss the responsibilities of higher education in addressing the global, ethical challenges of the 21st century.

This first Conclave was so profound in its impact that once again, in September, 2006, there was a second conclave –  “The Oxford Conclave on Global Ethics:  the Collaborative University.”  This time, in addition to vice presidents and deans, each president brought a faculty member and several students.  

This second Conclave convened in an effort to promote strong leadership and global ethics, and built upon the success of the first Conclave. Once again, with Dr. Siegel as chairman, the Oxford Conclave delivered powerful results and a powerful commitment to continue this great collaboration.

On April 23-25, 2008, a third Conclave – the Seboka, this one not at Oxford, but held at Stellenbosch University, near Capetown, South Africa.

“The Stellenbosch Seboka on Higher Education and Ethical Leadership:  Preparing the Intellectual Leaders of Tomorrow,” brought together 50 great educators to the campus of Stellenbosch University, an old and beautiful campus, with 35,000 students.

The 50 distinguished university vice chancellors and rectors were from seven African countries and eleven African universities.



 

Dr. Betty Siegel, now President of the Siegel Institute for Leadership, Ethics and Character, Kennesaw State University, chaired the Seboka, as she did both Oxford Conclaves.  Joining her was John Knapp of Georgia State University and Brian Wooten of Kennesaw and her distinguished husband Dr. Joel Siegel. 

The Leader to Leader Institute team included Geneva Johnson, former CEO of  Family Service America; LCR Carla Grantham, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.), now consulting with the U.S. Department of Energy and teaching communication at the American University in Washington, DC. 

Geneva Johnson and I were invited to give keynote speeches. I was to speak on the first day, following the opening address by Archbishop Tutu, for me the inspiring highlight of the week.

Then we learned that Archbishop Desmond Tutu would not arrive in time to open the Seboka, but would speak on the morning of the second day.  I then became the speaker to give the opening address, with the image of Archbishop Tutu before me.  When he did speak the second morning, no one could have been more inspiring, more moving.  Following is one message we took home.

“Higher Education must engage in the exhilarating business of giving moral and ethical leadership training”.  – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, 24 April 2008, Stellenbosch Seboka on Higher Education and Ethical Leadership

After our deliberations, there was a stirring concert by the Libertas Choir and a lecture by a former Justice of the Supreme Court of South Africa, Dr. Arthur Chaskalson, who defended Nelson Mandela.

The trust that began from the first moment with Professor Russel Botman, and the conference director, Dr. H. Ludolph Botha and Dr. Betty Siegel, made this a leadership experience that indeed changed hearts, changed minds and will change the lives of students and faculty as these exemplary academic leaders go back to their campuses, all over Africa, and the United States.

Our Leader to Leader Institute team from the U.S.A., left with a powerful commitment to join the Conclave/Seboka – whatever the name – in 2009 that will include our colleagues from the two earlier Oxford Conclaves on Global Ethics, held at Balliol College, Oxford, England and from our 2008 Stellenbosch Seboka in South Africa.  The 2009 Conclave will be held in Atlanta, Georgia.  It too will change hearts, change minds, change lives.

The most powerful way we can communicate the significance, the power, the commitment to ethical leadership, diversity and inclusion, is to share a document created at the Stellenbosch Seboka on Higher Education and Ethical Leadership. This document, “A Call to Action,” was developed with great energy and belief in a bright future for all of our people – the students, the faculty of our African and American learning institutions, and the future of our great countries.

Here is a PDF version of the document that emerged from common purpose, common language, common ground, of 50 men and women with a shared belief in the education of all of our children, and a commitment to our alliance, and the Stellenbosch Seboka partnership. 

declaration.pdf (45.47 kb)

For further information on the Stellenbosch Seboka event, and to download audio clips of the keynote speeches, please visit the Stellenbosch Seboka website


Welcome to the Leader to Leader Institute Blog

By Kamal Singh Masuta
Manager, Internet & Creative Services

As many of our regular visitors may have noticed, we launched a completely redesigned website on October 9th, 2007. We have been offering leadership resources on the web since April 1997. The redesign was the first step in an initiative to enhance our web presence. We now present this Blog, which gives us a new way to communicate with our audience. We are pleased to announce that our Chairman, Frances Hesselbein, will be a regular contributor to the Blog, discussing leadership issues raised at her many speaking engagements.

We look forward to an open exchange of viewpoints and welcome your ideas and feedback.


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