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Friday, March 16, 2012

Leadership & Hardiness Elective, Summer 2012

Hi Everyone,


It is my pleasure to announce the Leadership and Hardiness course offered during Summer of 2012. The 2011 course was a tremendous hit as a result of the students that contributed to a memorable learning experience in class and on the mountain. Many of you already know this course as the mountaineering course, but there is more to the course than climbing. Although mountaineering is a great metaphor for leadership, there was much study into the philosophical roots of existentialism, personal hardiness, developing organizational hardiness and enacting hardiness. The embedded teaching theory behind the course intentionally contributes to your personal hardiness and equips you with the skills that can be practiced and applied in the organizational setting and in your own life. Additionally, this course is strongly rooted in the assumption and question of 'what is the worth of theory, knowledge, frameworks, models, without action?' The course challenges each student to 'walk their talk' in developing and practicing leadership hardiness by introspectively evaluating the meaning of life and developing a philosophy on life that leads to perceiving personal and organizational adversity as a natural progression of life with opportunities for learning and growth.


Why Leadership &Hardiness?
Leadership
  • Leadership is about relationships (Kouzes & Posner)
  • Leadership happens at all levels of an organization
  • Leadership requires internal formation (Greenleaf)
Hardiness
  • Hardiness principles were discovered in corporate America during the tumultuous times of deregulation (Maddi &Khoshaba) - sound familiar?
  • Research based evidence shows that hardy principles contribute to transformational coping strategies in times of personal and organizational stress, tension, adversity, trauma, anxiety etc. In organizations, these are typically experienced during, mergers, cutbacks, slumping economy, organizational change, shift in positional leadership, caustic office relationships etc.
    • Research-based evidence in organizations, sports, military shows that coping strategies provide the pathway to personal and organizational resilience
Leadership & Hardiness
  • It is the premise of this course that leadership without introspective growth and action leads to malpractice
  • Hardiness compels one to existentially evaluate intrinsic motivators, ways of knowing, philosophy on life, and what gives one meaning
  • If leadership is about relationships, it is our moral imperative to first grow from within - physically, intellectually, spiritually - and do the difficult work before reaching out to others
A new caveat of the course is our relationship to a grassroots outdoor non-profit organization aimed at taking "at-risk" youth to the outdoors. Peak7Adventures is an organization in Spokane that has branched out to Portland and Seattle to serve the NW underprivileged youth.There are infinite lessons and life-skills learned in the wilderness that contribute to a hardiness pathway leading towards resiliency. This partnership between Gonzaga University and Peak7 is also in response to numerous requests by ORGL & COML students interested in enrolling in a course that has a social justice piece in tandem with action. Our class will be responsible for raising funds to sponsor an expedition for Peak7Adventures in taking at risk youth to climb Mt.Baker. Our students will also be able to emotionally support the youth in preparation for their expedition by following and commenting in their group blog.

Please email me for any additional information on this course or if the course simply caught your interest: popa@gonzaga.edu


Mt. Adams Residency Required (July 26-29)
General Itinerary:

  • Thursday (July 26) afternoon/night arrival at Trout Lake camp ground
  • Friday (July 27), ascend to base-camp a.k.a. 'lunch counter'
  • Saturday (July 28) ascend & push for summit early morning & return to Trout Lake camp ground in the afternoon
  • Sunday (July 29) return home

Below you will find some blog and video reflections from students who completed the course last summer - Enjoy!

VIDEOS:

BLOGS:



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