Projects
American Indian Community Data Profile, 2002
Namadji Youth and Elders Project Report, 2001
Forum Reports
1997 Fall: Tribal Sovereignty and
American Indian Leadership
1996 Fall: Tribal Governments: What will they look like in the year 2010?
1996 Spring: The Threatened State of Tribal Sovereignty
Tribal Sovereignty and American Indian Leadership
October 18, 1997
Robert Terry, Ph.D.
President, The Terry Group
The last day of the symposium began with a workshop and analysis of leadership led by Robert Terry, Ph.D., a renowned expert in the field of leadership training. "We tend to develop leadership capacities based on our own definitions of leadership," said Terry in talking about different frameworks for thinking about leadership. Using humor and wit, Terry provided a formal way to think about leadership. He asked the audience to determine for themselves how they define leadership according to eight dimensions of leadership as discussed in academic literature. In a robust discussion among participants, an awareness of distinct styles of leadership emerged. According to Terry, leadership can be defined as:
- Born: Every person is born with different capacities for leadership.
or
Made: Leadership is learned. - Individual: One leader.
or
Relational: Shared or collaborative leadership. - Positional: Authority derives from position.
or
Everywhere: Authority derives from behavior. - Getting Results: Leaders get things done.
or
A Process of Engagement: Leadership is a process of interaction that occurs between leaders and followers to determine goals. - Coercive & Noncoercive: Leadership may entail the exercise
of force.
or
Only Noncoercive: It is not leadership if you have to use force. - Vision: Leaders see possibilities where others do not.
or
Framing: Leaders reframe, or look at things from different perspectives. - Ethical and Unethical: Leadership may be unethical.
or
Only Ethical: It is not leadership if it is not ethical. - Secular: Spirituality has no place in leadership.
or
Spiritual: Spirituality is integral to leadership.
Most people usually view leadership not as an either/or definition, but instead incorporate different facets of these dimensions.
Terry reported that the academic thinking about leadership has changed and that it is becoming surprisingly similar to traditional American Indian conceptions of leadership. He drew connections between the description of traditional American Indian leadership in AIRPI's report, Traditional American Indian Leadership: A Comparison with U.S. Governance, and current views of leadership. According to Terry, academia and the mainstream culture is moving toward a definition of leadership that is more spiritual, relational, ethical and that occurs everywhere rather than through specific positions. This is similar to the way American Indians have traditionally viewed leadership. With this change in thinking, American Indians may be in a more advantageous position to change misconceptions about their distinct ways of leadership.
While no absolute conclusions were established, the discussion helped participants to think more deeply about their own personal style of leadership, traditional American Indian leadership, and various perspectives on leadership in mainstream society.
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