Ball State University’s Excellence in Leadership program held the sixth annual Beneficence Leadership Conference Jan. 25 with facilitator Lauren Krznarich. Krznarich is with CampuSpeak and gave a presentation called “Leadership Plunge." At this event, students were encouraged to meet new people and step outside their comfort zones.
Krznarich started the conference by leading icebreakers so guests could get to know each other, especially since future discussion topics would be more personal and might be harder to share.
“One of the things that’s helpful to start thinking about is just different areas of leadership. What skills do you have, what can you work on, and where are you at?,” Krznarich said.
Krznarich walked attendees through the five aspects of leadership: self-awareness, communication, developing others, navigating conflict and serving others. Attendees were then given a chance to fill out self-assessments about the five types of leadership so they could see what the highest and lowest ones were.
Following the activity, attendees were broken up into groups that correlated with the assessment to discuss what traits were most and least prevalent to their character and why that may be.
The second discussion focused on energy to maintain it effectively. Attendees wrote down things that made them “empty” as well as “full.”
Krznarich opened the floor for a discussion where some people shared tricks on how they keep their energy “full,” such as working out and eating healthy.
From this point, , many brought up how eating healthy is harder or how they do not have the time to work out since they are so busy. Krznarich suggested how to set aside time to work out by comparing it to a meeting you can’t miss or change the day and time.
Krznarich’s third point of discussion was connections.The provided workbook at the event broke down the eight types of people; builders, involvers, champions, energizers, collaborators, mind openers, companions and navigators.
Krznarich asked guests to categorize themselves into different types of people.
A trio gather at Ball State University's Beneficence Leadership Conference inside the L.A Pittenger Student Center Ballroom Jan. 25. Participants discussed what kind of leader they wanted to be. Shelby Anderson, DN
From there, Krznarich opened it up for small group discussion and told groups to write down movie and television show characters that fit the role of the type of person. This led to a diverse amount of names such as Olaf, Tim Bradford, Phoebe Buffay and Danny Fuller.
The final discussion was about how to have crucial conversations. There were seven steps on how to do this:
Step 1: Start with yourself, and ask yourself what conversation you need to have and why it’s important to you.
Step 2: Be Aware. This means watching how the conversation is going. See if it is still dialogue or if it is more defensive.
Step 3: Safety is key. This means keeping the conversation comfortable which could be asking questions that show you care or apologizing if necessary.
Step 4: Own your story. This means asking yourself why you feel this way and what caused it.
Step 5: State your intent. This means just stating your facts so the other party can see where you are coming from.
Step 6: Explore other’s intent. Listen to the other person, and look for where both parties agree.
Step 7: Move aheadWhat will happen following the conversation?Will both parties have a follow-up later, or have a deadline?
With the conference ending, Krznarich encouraged students to come to events whenever they have a chance and remain open to campus involvement.
“There is always more to know, more to experience, and more to grow. From a student and later on in your career,” she said.
Mackenzie Gordon, a second-year biology major, attended this conference after receiving an email. She said she was glad she listened to her instinct to come to the event.
“I learned about myself, how I interacted with the world and better ways to do it,” Gordon said.
Gordon said she is very thankful that the university hosted this event and encourages others to attend it next year.
Contact Shelby Anderson via email at sanderson9@bsu.edu.
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