Custom-fit leadership: Fox student leaders pinpoint how to effectively manage at annual CSPD conference

As a student professional organization (SPO) officer, Patrik Fornander didn’t realize that his neutral method of interacting with his fellow student leaders might not be the best approach – until he attended the Center for Student Professional Development (CSPD)’s 14th Annual Leadership Retreat.

“When I started out, I approached all of our officers the same way,” said Fornander, the 2009-2010 vice president of the International Business Association at Fox. “I told them that their tasks needed to be done by a certain date. I also sent out e-mails saying the same thing in the exact same manner and tone to everyone.”

But, as one of 85 SPO leaders invited to attend the October 2009 conference at Alter Hall, Fornander learned that different personalities require different types of assessment and incentive.

Outlining skill sets

Sponsored by CSPD corporate partner the Vanguard Group, the leadership retreat featured speaker Diane Tiger, who has been shaping leaders for 16 years and managing for more than 25.

“I lead a staff every day. It’s not just theory,” said Tiger, Vanguard’s manager of talent acquisition and development. Tiger lectured Fox SPO leaders on what she considers the “key to success” as students move into the business world.

“I chose to focus energy on a core leadership principle, which is that each individual should be treated as just that – individuals,” she said.

“The way we outlined it was to consider two things,” Tiger said, “risk – high, medium or low – combined with the skill set of the individual – a high, medium or low level of proficiency.”

According to Tiger’s criteria, a leader can assume any one of four primary functions.

For a high-risk, low-capability employee, the leader takes a “direct” approach. In a low-risk, low-capability situation, the leader should take on a “guiding” role or a “pure coach,” Tiger said. When the employee displays both high risk and high capability, the manager must “support” that employee. And, when a person shows high capability and low risk, a leader is simply “sponsoring” the employee.

Tiger said the solutions to the situations she described are never black-and-white.

“One thing with people leadership is there’s never one answer,” she added.

Room for debate

For some students at the retreat, such as Fornander and Skyla Pope, the conference was the first of its kind that they’d ever attended.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be so hands-on,” said Pope, the 2009-2010 director of communications for the Financial Management Association at Fox. “I was pleased to find out that it was more than a lecturing event and allowed the students to really get involved.”

After her speech, Tiger engaged the students in case studies, for which they made hypothetical employee assignments to a team working on a major, albeit imaginary, upcoming project.

“Each employee listed had good qualities, as well as bad qualities,” Pope said. “It was up to us to decide the best employees to complete the job and why.”

Tiger said it was a privilege to work with the Fox SPO leaders, who were “willing to debate with me in order to learn.”

Eight months later, Fornander and Pope are still using the knowledge that Tiger’s exercises helped them develop.

“I learned to be more flexible as a leader,” Fornander said. “People require different types of critique and motivation, since people can be very different.”

For CSPD, the retreat serves as a prime opportunity to do what the center does best: connect exceptional students with corporate partners.

“These are top-notch students,” CSPD Executive Director Corinne Snell said, “and employers love the opportunity to connect with top-notch students.

“The annual leadership retreat is wonderful because it helps the students in their current roles as student-organization leaders, as well as builds the tools and skills they can take with them after graduation.”

If you or your company are interested in collaborating with CSPD on an upcoming Leadership Retreat, please contact Megan Panaccio at 215-204-8095 or mpanaccio@temple.edu.

– Chelsea Calhoun