Forum teaches keys to leadership

By RYAN BORCHERS
Reporter

If leadership is a necessary quality in today’s world, then several Creighton students recently helped themselves tremendously.

On Saturday, 40 students attended the Creighton University Collegiate Leadership Forum presented by the Arts and Sciences Senate in the Skutt Student Center. This was the forum’s second year in existence.

“It’s an event that we would like to make annual,” said Josh Potter, Arts & Sciences sophomore, forum chairman and student senator.

Though the event is fairly new, this year’s forum drew about twice as many people as last year’s.

Last February, several Creighton student senators attended the University of Arizona’s Collegiate Leadership Forum, which draws several schools from surrounding states. Potter said there had been several things about the event that Creighton students felt they could improve upon at Creighton’s forum.

“We learned nothing new and were ‘talked down to’ the entire time,” he said.

He said one of the main problems with the event was the conference’s focus on “leadership agenda.” Instead, the Arts and Sciences Senate wanted to have a presentation that stressed an individual’s capacity for leadership.

“You need to understand yourself, who you’re working with and the environment,” Potter said. “We’re hoping that people will be able to tailor their leadership abilities to a given situation.”

Saturday’s forum brought in several guest speakers including Timothy Austin, dean of the college of Arts and Sciences. Austin praised the value of the Leadership Forum as one of many chances to develop leadership at Creighton.

“Today is about achieving greatness,” he said.

Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey also spoke. He talked about his life as a political leader and his personal leadership style. He said his success as a leader came from good communication skills and working well with others.

“I try to surround myself with smart people,” he said.

Tim Sully, development director of the Siena/Francis House, talked about his experiences as a resident director at Creighton and working at the Siena/Francis House. He said successful leadership starts with a selfless attitude.

“One thing I’ve learned about leadership is that it’s always important to think outside oneself,” Sully said.

Before the conference, all of the attendees had to take a personality test issued by the Gallup Polling Organization StrengthsQuest Program.

“I took the Myers-Briggs, and I wasn’t impressed,” Potter said. “The Gallup test blew me away.”

Other forum attendees said they were surprised at how accurately the test seemed to describe their personalities.

Grant Mussman, Gallup representative, also spoke at the conference. He said the purpose of the test is to determine someone’s natural talent in certain areas.

“Talent is the piece [of leadership] that you cannot pass on,” he said.

Mussman stressed how one’s talent could be used in a leadership capacity and also highlighted the individuality of leadership.

The Gallup test shows the test taker five of 34 possible areas where he or she is particularly gifted. All of the personality traits on the test can be qualities of leadership, but as Mussman said, “The odds of you finding somebody with the same five traits as you are about one in 286,000.”

One of the Arts and Sciences Senate’s goals for the event was to see responsiveness from the attendees to the speakers.

“I thought good points were made about how you can behave as a leader, and it’s not about assuming titles and responsibilities,” said Kate McKillip, Arts & Sciences freshman.

Arts & Sciences freshman Natalie German agreed.