Leading in a Changing World

Having encountered topics that extend from decision-making to experiential learning, the students in GLI’s Models of Leadership class discover new leader-oriented lectures every week. President Bodnar addresses the GLI class through a perspective based around UM’s continued mission to enhance the student experience—with his own experiences as a backdrop.

He began with an anecdote that excites images of an unstable Iraqi city and grueling military training. Ultimately, he notes, these strenuous circumstances called upon his values of working with people and solving problems. From this, President Bodnar extrapolates that every leader is a work in progress, meaning that alongside the improvement of the leader comes the improvement of the group. Condensing the very broad sense of leadership into a singular phrase, he gives the definition: “The process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization”.

Acknowledging the gravity of his powerful description, President Bodnar explains his proposal by providing UM-based examples for each principle. Concerning purpose, he explores UM’s ideals of inclusive prosperity and accessible education that place the student in top priority. For direction, he posits a partnership with place that involves the community, and also a flexibility standard that allows students to meet a changing workforce and careers of the future. Finally, on motivation, he outlines guides like team-building, diversity, and communication that reinforce the price of leading: criticism.

During his conclusion, President Bodnar takes questions from the class on topics that range from professorships to climate research to technological modernization. The common thread, however, was in his consistent message of hope that leaders of tomorrow can apprehend unimaginable issues with courage.