LEADING FROM THE HEART THE PASSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE Leadership Stories Told by Kellogg National Fellowship Program Fellows KEL.112 insert 12/19/01 4:16 PM Page 1 LEADING FROM THE HEART ABOUT THE EDITOR ROGER H. SUBLETT, who directed the Kellogg National Fellowship/Leadership Program from 1991 to 2001, reviewed many inspirational stories written by KNFP/KNLP fellows, and he and a review panel chose a select few to be featured in this book. Sublett has said that over the years, one of the most rewarding parts of the program was working with and learning from such an outstanding, motivating, diverse group of leaders. His hope is that by telling and retelling these stories, tomorrow’s leaders will continue to seek meaningful opportunities to serve others. Sublett currently is the vice president for national undergraduate programs at Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, and is an avid reader, writer, and golfer. He and his wife maintain their home in Battle Creek, Michigan, and have three grown daughters. LEADING FROM THE HEART THE PASSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE Leadership Stories Told by Kellogg National Fellowship Program Fellows Edited by Roger H. Sublett KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 4 One Michigan Avenue East Battle Creek, MI 49017-4058 USA (616) 968-1611 TDD on site 495-3028 (616) 968-0413 KNLP 3960 Item # 719 1101 5M P&P Printed on Recycled Paper ISBN 0-9716520-0-7 KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 5 TABLE OF CO N T E N T S PREFACE ix FOREWORD xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii INTRODUCTION xix SE C T I ON ONE: SERVICE RIDE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUSTICE: 3 LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM A TRANSCONTINENTAL BIKE RIDE FOR HUNGER RELIEF David G. Altman LEADING THROUGH CONFLICT: 15 THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF AIDS AND LAND CONFLICT IN ZIMBABWE Paul Terry TOWARD ETHICAL LEADERSHIP: 23 MY JOURNEY FROM TANZANIA TO BELIZE Edward J. O’Neil Jr. AMONG ANGELS AND SOLDIERS 31 Jenna Berg BRINGING ATTENTION TO AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN CAREGIVERS: 39 GRANDPARENTS RAISING GRANDCHILDREN Meredith Minkler BUILDING A COMMUNITY VISION 47 Army Lester v KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 6 SE C T I ON TWO: PERSONAL DEVELOPME N T PRACTICE, PRACTICE 55 Pat Mora SPIRITUALITY IN LEADERSHIP: MUST IT REMAIN THE UNSPOKEN? 61 Melinda K. Lackey LOUD, PROUD, AND PASSIONATE: WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES EMERGE IN BEIJING 71 Susan Sygall CHILD OF THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA 77 Royal P. Walker Jr. THE LONGEST JOURNEY 85 Colleen Stiles RECOGNIZING OTHERS’ TRUTHS 89 Paul J. Gam SOMETHING TO CONTRIBUTE, SOMETHING TO LEARN 95 Suzanne Burgoyne FALLING SLATE AND SACRIFICE 103 Bob Henry Baber KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 7 SE C T I ON THREE: LEADERSHIP THREE FACES OF LEADERSHIP 111 Patrick F. Bassett LEADERSHIP WEATHER 115 Steven J. Moss LEADERSHIP LESSONS IN ROCK CLIMBING 119 Donna L. Burgraff LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE JUNGLE 125 Faye M. Yoshihara ADELBERTO’S DILEMMA 133 Ken Fox EPILOGUE 141 v i i KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 8 KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 9 PRE F A CE By William C. Richardson Many of the leadership stories in Leading from the Heart describe physical journeys that are both moving and inspiring. Often these journeys are metaphors for the very personal journey of self-discovery each Kellogg fellow traveled while examining goals and values in the context of each one’s commitment to make a difference in the lives of others. On behalf of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, I am gratified that the writers also express so deeply their gratitude for the fellowship that fueled their journey. Life-changing journeys involve unfamiliar paths and risk. These writers in particular grappled with placing their journeys in the context of leadership and their own heartfelt values. Their paths required the courage to endure a process of continuous self-examination in order to develop a unique and personal compass, one that guided their own steps while providing others with an example of a thoroughly examined life. Many of the journeys described here led the writers through difficult and troubled places in America and the world, where misery and hopelessness are everyday fare, yet they found their faith in positive social change galvanized by the experience. In this way, the stories affirm the wisdom of W.K. Kellogg when he provided for his Foundation in 1930: “I will invest my money in people.” Of the hundreds of fellows who participated in the Kellogg National Fellowship/Leadership program over 21 years, these stories are but a sample of the journeys taken and stories being told in classrooms, boardrooms, communities and villages around the world. This realization is both humbling and exciting for the Foundation. The world needs such leaders in increasing numbers. Leaders able to place their world, and their selves, under a microscope, and be energized by their discoveries. In each writer, the fellowship experience strengthened their resolve to pursue their own leadership course with renewed passion, and it clarified their vision of their own role in working for positive social change. By their example, these stories provide inspiration and hope for the future, two of the greatest gifts leaders offer us all. William C. Richardson, President and CEO W.K. Kellogg Foundation Battle Creek, Michigan November 15, 2001 i x KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 10 KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 11 FOREWORD By Barbara Kellerman In the field of leadership, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is a pioneer. Long before leadership studies became fashionable, the Foundation foresaw the virtues of leadership – of taking a relatively small number of men and women and supporting them in their effort to create change for the common good. Put another way, what the Kellogg Foundation understood over two decades ago was that a significant investment in no more than 40 fellows a year could impact in positive ways on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The Foundation recognized that leaders leverage. Now that leadership studies – leadership scholarship, education, development, centers, and institutes – has become so popular, it is hard to recall that what some tag the “leadership industry” is a rather recent phenomenon. For example, James MacGregor Burns’s book Leadership, which is widely regarded as one of the seminal works in contemporary leadership studies, was published in 1978, only two years before the establishment of the Kellogg National Fellowship/Leadership Program. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of leadership programs in schools, corporations, foundations, and the like were initiated subsequent to what the Kellogg Foundation started in 1980. The Kellogg Foundation may be said therefore to have practiced what it preached. By itself playing a leadership role in what subsequently became the burgeoning leadership field, it demonstrated that an organization – or, to be more exact, a few people within an organization – could in fact make a big difference. What, more precisely, was the Foundation’s “Big Idea”? At the meta-level one might say simply that there was the basic presumption that leadership matters. But in this case the micro-level was at least as important. Consider some of the Kellogg National Fellowship Program’s component parts – each of which sent a particular message. (Note: Since the Foundation is a learning organization, the component parts changed over time.) • Fellowships were awarded for a three-year period. Message sent to grantees: It will take time for you to develop your leadership capacities and skills, for you to do the requisite reflection, and for you to have an impact on the lives of others. •Fellowships required the development and implementation of carefully crafted action plans. Message sent to grantees: Contrary to conventional wisdom, in leadership work the devil is in the details. •Action plans focused on new policies and programs. Message sent to grantees: Your primary purpose is to serve others by creating change. •Action plans also emphasized personal leadership development. Message sent to grantees: You will be that much more effective if you enhance your own leadership skills – skills such as creative thinking, systems thinking, interpersonal effectiveness, and personal mastery. • Fellowships encouraged participation in cross-group activities. Message sent to grantees: Leadership is engagement – with different persons, cultures, professions, experiences, and fields of intellectual inquiry. x i KEL.112 intro pages 12/19/01 3:57 PM Page 12 For the large majority of Kellogg fellows, the three-year award period was a transforming experience: to be selected in the first place was to be validated; the program per se constituted a period of learning; and even the attempt to exercise leadership got fellows to “thinking about what’s possible – about what we can hope to accomplish.” And so it was that the Kellogg Foundation struck a blow for optimism. By sending the message that leadership is possible – good leadership, that is, the kind defined as “the ability to get good things done with the help of others” – the Foundation declared that change for the better was within our power to create. This volume, Leading from the Heart: The Passion to Make a Difference, is a story book. It is a collection of nineteen stories by nineteen men and women who, as Kellogg fellows, exercised leadership. As Howard Gardner points out in his book Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Le a d e r s h i p, this juxtaposition is no coincidence. Fo r G a r d n e r, leading is story t e l l i n g : “The ultimate impact of the leader depends most significantly on the particular story that he or she relates or embodies.