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The Loop

Author: Staley School of Leadership

Developing knowledgeable, ethical, caring, inclusive leaders for a diverse and changing world

Congratulations to the fall cohort of the 2023 City of Manhattan Leadership Academy

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

The Staley School of Leadership recently wrapped up the 2023 City of Manhattan Leadership Academy. This three-month intensive experience brings together employees from across various City departments to sharpen their leadership skills, expand their understanding of leadership, and forge connections across City departments.

Facilitated by faculty from the Staley School, this work empowers employees to better exercise leadership from wherever they are in the organization. Over the course of six sessions, participants engaged in leadership development activities and conversations. Topics covered included leadership theory, utilizing your strengths, adaptive leadership, leadership coaching, and ethical dimensions of leadership.

“It has been an honor to connect leadership learning and scholarship to our local Manhattan community through the City of Manhattan Leadership Academy,” said Chance Lee, director of the nonprofit leadership program at Kansas State University. “Through this partnership, the models and ideas we teach in the classroom are applied in real-world scenarios through all of the great work of the participants.”

Faculty who facilitated sessions include: Innocent Assoman, graduate teaching assistant; Tamara Bauer, instructor and program director; Mike Finnegan, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of K-State Strengths; Chance Lee, Ph.D., CNP, assistant professor and director of nonprofit leadership; Mary Kay Siefers, Ph.D., teaching professor and director of global food systems leadership; and Murry Streetman, D.E.L., assistant professor. Learn more about these members of the Staley School faculty on our website.

Continue reading “Congratulations to the fall cohort of the 2023 City of Manhattan Leadership Academy” →

CliftonStrengths access migration completed

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

CliftonStrengths for students has successfully migrated platforms to Gallup Access. Kansas State University users will now visit https://ksu.my.gallup.com/ and login with a Single Sign On (SSO) to access their CliftonStrengths report.

For details on how to navigate this new platform, watch this short video until the 5:20 timestamp. This video will explain how to further explore your own top five Strengths, find resources, reports, and build Strengths-based online communities.

The K-State Strengths team recommends identifying a Strengths champion within your own department, unit, or work team. Strengths champions will receive access to build detailed reports for their units/teams. To request access, please email strengths@ksu.edu. Continue reading “CliftonStrengths access migration completed” →

Updates to K-State’s CliftonStrengths access

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

The K-State Strengths team announces a change in utilizing the CliftonStrengths online platform.

CliftonStrengths for Students will be changing to the Gallup Access platform. This migration will take place during finals week. Starting Monday, Dec. 11, the K-State campus community will not be able to access their top five strengths through the single sign-on portal at ksu.gallup.com.

The K-State Strengths team will share the new URL after the migration has been completed so students, faculty, and staff can view their top five strengths. Utilizing this new platform provides additional opportunities for K-Staters via online resources and functionality to further develop your top five strengths and thrive.

Existing users will have access to their top five strengths prior to the start of the spring semester. The K-State Strengths team will keep the K-State community informed on the process of code distribution after the transition to the Gallup Access platform, so students can continue to identify and develop their top five strengths.

If you are teaching a winter intersession course and plan to use CliftonStrengths in your course, please contact strengths@ksu.edu to ensure students will have access to take their top five strengths assessment over winter break.

Strengths is aimed at increasing student engagement and well-being across campus so students can thrive. More than 2,500 students, faculty and staff have identified their top five strengths since the start of the 2023 fall semester. K-State Strengths will continue to provide strengths training, workshops, and peer coaching sessions to help students align their strengths with their personal and academic goals. For questions, email strengths@ksu.edu.

University Honors Program students participate in statewide conference

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

Six honors students represented Kansas State University in the Kansas Honors Connections statewide honors conference in Emporia, Kansas, on Saturday, Nov. 18.

Abby Collins, architectural engineering and Nicholas Edwards, biomedical engineering, “Breaking the Cycle: Analyzing Oppressive Systems and Designing Interventions for College Students,” mentored by Mac Benavides, assistant professor, leadership studies.

Kale Stahl, physics and mathematics, “A New Sampling Imaging Functional for Imaging Photonic Crystals,” mentored by Dinh-Liem Nguyen, associate professor of mathematics.

Payton Lynn, secondary educational studies, “Assessing Curriculum Design and Pedagogical Approaches for the Educational Studies Degree Path,” mentored by Debbie Mercer, dean, college of Education.

Carson Connard, math, “Morse-Smale Functions on Orbifolds and Novel Cohomology Products on Dihedral Twisted Sectors,” mentored by Lino Amorim, assistant professor of mathematics.

Susanna Jones, anthropology, and modern languages, “Student Honors Panel.”

Students described their experience at the conference as a unique opportunity to present research to an audience from a variety of academic disciplines. Students also commented on how this interdisciplinary audience provided them with insight into the many ways that honors research can be presented, and the different ways that audiences can engage with and respond to scholarly research.

For more information about the University Honors Program, visit k-state.edu/ksuhonors. To recommend a student for the program or for questions, email ksuhonors@k-state.edu

Leadership Communication celebrates doctoral graduate

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

The Leadership Communication doctoral program at Kansas State University proudly announces its fall 2023 graduate. Lindsey Dreiling, Ph.D., completed her doctorate in leadership communication, an interdisciplinary program with faculty from the Department of Communications and Agricultural Education, the Department of Communication Studies, the College of Education, the Staley School of Leadership and the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication.

Lindsey Dreiling earned two B.S. degrees in professional pilot and technology management and a M.S. in counseling and student development. Continue reading “Leadership Communication celebrates doctoral graduate” →

Staley School seeks students to participate in leadership challenge event

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

Imagine your community is the midst of a crisis: a massive electrical outage, a hazardous spill, or the collapse of a major communications system across a town.

Now, imagine you are one of about four to six individuals in a position of leadership in that community that is called into action to work through the logistics and processes needed to persevere. And you’ll be judged on how your team works together to formulate the action plan.

The Washburn University Leadership Challenge Event (LCE) is a two-day crisis management simulation and an opportunity for applied learning. It provides students with intellectual and practical leadership development in a unique forum and the opportunity to network with peers from across the country.

The Staley School of Leadership is looking for undergraduate or masters-seeking students to participate in the 2024 event, which will take place Feb. 29-March 1, 2024. Students will represent Kansas State University in the two-day event at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. Travel, meals, and accommodations are included, and the team will travel with Emmanuel Jeje, team advisor and graduate research assistant for the Kansas State University Office of Engagement.

Students interested in participating on the K-State team at the 2024 Washburn Leadership Challenge Event should email Emmanuel Jeje at eajeje@ksu.edu by Dec. 8, 2023.

K-State’s 2023 Washburn LCE team. Pictured: Back row from left: Emmanuel Jeje, Christopher Randol, Karlyn Gustin, Austin Drake. Front row from left: Jess Ramirez, Anna Coke

Last year, the Staley School took a team of five. View a story map of the event here. Continue reading “Staley School seeks students to participate in leadership challenge event” →

Revealing how to lead change in Africa by Africans: A review of It Takes a Village 

Posted on by Staley School of Leadership

In this book review, Chibuzor Azubuike takes a deep dive into It Takes a Village: Leading Social Change in Africa (2023) by Nigerian scholar Onyedikachi Ekwerike, Ph.D., who is currently a lecturer at the Institute for Leadership Advancement in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.  

This begins with a foreword from Nyasha GuramatunhuCooper, Ph.D. She writes with the endearment of a mother who is proud of her son’s achievement, and yet firmly charges readers, using parables, to not only read this book but implement Ekwerike’s submission. As a Zimbabwean leadership scholar, she is excited to read a leadership book by a fellow African, given that African scholars are under-represented in leadership curriculum and literature. She, however stated that she could be scared if anyone reads this book and does not take positive actions towards social change. 

Photo of the book cover: It Takes a VillageIn the book’s introduction, Ekwerike recounts his own story. Through leading a mental health organization in Nigeria, as well as being part of leadership development programs like the Mandela Washington Fellowship, he realized that there was a need for more in order to do more, which led him to a doctoral program and ultimately to writing this book. He went through the learning process and then wrote this book to teach young people how to learn social change effectively. This book is a product of qualitative research work for his Ph.D. dissertation.  

In chapter one, The Problem with Nigeria, Africa, you will notice that Nigeria is crossed out, coupled with the use of illustrations. Both styles are used in Okechukwu Ofili’s books, a Nigerian author who writes with sarcasm. In Ekwerike’s book, Nigeria represents Africa, as he says he is providing a holistic approach, while the context and research for this book is centered in Nigeria, the problems and processes to address those problems apply across the continent.     Continue reading “Revealing how to lead change in Africa by Africans: A review of It Takes a Village “ →