Connections, Perception, and Resilience

3 pages of notes and 6 handouts later, day 2 has come to a close. I started off the morning by attending “Yes, Chapter Advisors are Actually Helpful” with Jesse Koch presenting. There were 4 of us in the audience- a graduate assistant Greek advisor, a chapter advisor, an undergrad who colonized in Fall 2014, and myself. It was cool because Jesse Koch was able to interact with us on a more personal level and we were able to engage with him and the varying advisors in the room. (I was also able to discuss being a chartering class member and some of the struggles that come with that with the other undergrad in the room.) There was a lot of discussion of two types of advisors, the MIA advisor and the advisor that is reliving college through the chapter. Setting expectations and ensuring advisors are up to date with each other and with chapter business is crucial in insuring that you and your advisors are working as a team to aid in your chapter’s success. Another helpful hint is to appreciate them. They volunteer in their positions so show a little gratitude during Advisor Appreciation Month (April) and through strengthening your personal connections with them. Learn their birthday. Learn their significant other’s birthday. Ask about their family so that when their kid wins the little league championship you can be excited for them and build a personal relationship.

The next session I attended was “Perception is Reality”. This session discussed how social media provides you with an opportunity to create your own individual brand. To outsiders who don’t know you, whatever perception they have of you IS their reality of who you are and the values that you represent. This is important for our own personal account and to organizational accounts. It is crucial to keep it clean and professional and present ourselves in a way that will receive respect. We also discussed what to do when people post bad things on social media. Many discussed strategies to get the picture down from posting a secret message to giving warnings to sending to standards board. It was argued that if you just ask someone to take it down or give them a warning, they won’t have the crucial conversation that will help them learn why the post isn’t ok. Those conversations are important to help push your brothers or sisters to become the best versions of themselves, not to chastise them.

My final session was “Resilient Leadership”. In this session we discussed the foundation of unstoppable leadership. You need to identify your passions, ensure you have the right mindset, find your support team, and build up faith in yourself. There is value in failure as long as you view it as an opportunity to learn. Your challenges are there to make you grow; you just have to respond the right way. Turn thoughts into words, words into actions, actions into habits, and habits transform character and be an unstoppable leader. “Once you can master hardships, a happy life will be found.”

Tee and I with ASTs from NYIT

I’m so excited for tomorrow’s session and to learn even more from fellow Greeks and  from the presenters! For the time being, I'm off to the Jammy Jam.