Reflections from GWALA Cohort 2 Fellows

Blog from Professor Laurie S. Kohn, Associate Dean | Jacob Burns Community Legal Clinics, Director | Family Justice Litigation Clinic, Director | Civil Access to Justice Clinic, George Washington University Law School

GWALA Cohort 2

For our first homework assignment, we were instructed to consider our hopes for the Leadership Academy. At the time, I noted that I hoped it would be a space that would help me reflect and be intentional about the kind of leader I want to be.

The Leadership Academy met and exceeded my expectations – not only by giving me space to reflect and be intentional, but by exposing me to the tools and community that allowed me to discover what kind of leader I want to be and how best to endeavor to become that leader. Some lessons that I took away from the year to help me reach my goals include:

Address conflict by not ignoring problems; proactively establishing guidelines and policies rather than responding to ad hoc requests;
Servant-leadership requires building trust and leading with empathy;
Establish a positive decision-making environment by getting the right people in the room; agreeing on objectives, and processes;
Generating solutions should outweigh the process of defining the problem;
Evaluate solutions by taking the time to consider risks; consequences; feasibility;
An effective leader greatly benefits from a trusted thought-partner who understands the issues but has emotional distance from and little vested interest in the outcome;
That person is hard to find, but worth looking for;
Courageous decision-making is a close cousin of disastrous decision-making (see the importance again of that thought-partner who can tell you that you are dead wrong when you are);
Good ideas abound but we don’t have time and resources to try them all;
In providing feedback and supervising, listen with empathy and curiosity and for understanding; be aware of one’s own triggers and use disruptors when necessary for self regulation and regulation of others’ emotions; and
Do a 360 whenever it’s offered!