Harvard Leadership Expert-Sharon Daloz Parks, PhD, 10/8, Montana State University – Bozeman

On Thursday, October 8 at 7 pm in MSU Strand Union Ballroom A, leadership expert Sharon Daloz Parks, PhD will give a lively 75-minute presentation titled “Calling Forth a New Kind of Leadership.” Sponsored by Hopa Mountain, ASMSU, MSU Leadership Institute, MSU Office of the Provost, MSU Local Government Center, United Way and MSU Office of Community Involvement, this event is free and open to the public.

A graduate and former faculty member of Harvard University, Parks is currently a senior fellow at the Whidbey Institute. “Parks’ view is that leaders are formed gradually, over time and through deliberate effort – not merely born with special traits,” says Griffin Stevens, a MSU Leadership Institute staff member and one of the event organizers.

In her book, Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Can-Be-Taught-Approach/dp/1591393094 , Parks challenges traditional thought that maintains leadership skills are an innate gift with which only some are blessed. Parks, building on the work of Harvard leadership professor Ronald Heifetz, presents an innovative way in which leadership can be fostered. Parks is also the co-author of Big Questions, Worthy Dreams and Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment in a Complex World.

“Parks stresses that true leadership involves helping teams of individuals deal with adaptive challenges and that effective leadership rests less on innate personality than upon a style of interacting with others in an organization,” adds Stevens. This bold, approach to leadership building enables emerging leaders to work actively through the complex demands of today’s workplace and build their skills as they discover theory in practice.

In addition, on Friday, October 9, Parks will conduct a workshop at the Holiday Inn from 9:00 am – 3 pm. Participants at Embracing Uncertainty – Claiming a New Strength: The Art & Practice of Adaptive Leadership will learn adaptive leadership techniques for creating change, how to understand the tough challenges in your community, how to use both formal and informal authority, and how to read the system you are working in and the role of partners, allies, and confidants in creating change. Open to the public, the cost is $25 and registration materials are available through Hopa Mountain at 406-586-2455.

For lecture information, call the MSU Leadership Institute at 406-994-7667 or visit http://www.montana.edu/leadership.