The 2022-2023 cohort of District Leadership Fellows has begun the year with an in-person meeting at SMU.
After two years entirely online, the Institute for Leadership Impact was delighted to host district leaders from across Texas and Arkansas in-person at SMU for a two-day kick-off for the District Leadership Fellows program.
Program director Dr. G. Bing launched the program by challenging teams of leaders to solve a problem well outside their usual experience. While planning to slow the health crisis in Africa might seem removed from providing the best education possible to children in the United States, it became clear that the leadership skills needed to solve one challenge applied directly to the other challenge.
To start day two, fellows engaged in a mindfulness activity, remembering and re-finding their purpose and motivation. They will keep their larger goal in sight as they move through the year.
Each leader entered the program with a goal in their district they want to accomplish overt the course of the program. Leaders began by interviewing each other about their district goal, internal and external resources available, and the activities they might carry out to accomplish their goal. From there, leaders moved on to talking through measuring progress along the way. Each leader then transferred this information over to an Impact Model.
Following the kick-off, leaders have been refining their Impact Model in discussion with their district team, and their Peer Group. The cohort is continuing to meet online, with an in-person winter retreat scheduled in January.
To learn more about Institute for Leadership Impact programs, visit our website, email us at leadershipimpact@smu.edu, and engage with us on Twitter.