Laurie Dalzell started her Emerging Leadership presentation at the Rockwater with a short video of a talk by Ben Zander, author, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and well-known public speaker on leadership.
This is what he had to say:
“I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. Once I realized that I wanted to know if I was doing that. Do you know how you find out? You look at the eyes of the players; and if their eyes are shining you know they’re doing it right. And if the eyes are not shining, you get to ask the question: who am I being that my players’ eyes are not shining?”
It is Dalzell’s goal to have the participants in this upcoming course complete the 4 week program with shining eyes.
“Anyone can be a leader,” said Dalzell. “Whether you’re picking up garbage on the street or helping out at your child’s school, it’s all leadership. Leadership can happen anywhere and anytime.”
Dalzell has recently completed her Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Leadership. She has been teaching, advising and coaching in the professional context for over 15 years.
Her new course, Emerging Leadership, will take place from February 15th to March 12th on Monday and Thursday evenings at the College of the Rockies. The course will identify where to find leaders in our organizations and communities, where leadership comes from within ourselves and where various roles of leaders fit in organizational, community and personal life.
“Because leadership development is first and foremost self-development, we will look inward to bring out and strengthen our own leadership qualities,” said Dalzell.
Next, she explained, students will analyze personality and conflict resolution styles in the context of interpersonal communication and employee relations. The course will cover subjects like time management skills, communication styles — which include written, verbal and non-verbal — teamwork and team building, hiring, training and motivating employees.
Dalzell also explained that people look for a few key things in leaders: honesty, forward-looking, inspiration and competence.
The course will use the Leadership Challenge book by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, which works off five tenants of leadership.
“What we have discovered, and rediscovered, is that leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women,” writes Kouzes, chairman emeritus of the Tom Peters Company, and Posner, dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, in the book. “People make extraordinary things happen by liberating the leader within everyone.”
Dalzell finished her presentation by telling the group what she believed to be the core of leadership.
“Leadership is about relationships, about credibility, and about what you do.”
The course is $395 for chamber members and $495 for non-chamber members for the eight sessions. Funding may be available. Please contact the College of the Rockies Golden Campus for more information.
