This morning Kansas HOBY had the pleasure of listening to the encouraging words of Dr. Emily Lehning during the Keynote Address. She incorporated Ambassadors sharing both their expectations and first impressions of HOBY in correlation with leadership development. This was done with emphasis on personal leadership, the first phase of three to be highlighted at this year’s seminar. She challenged the 2014 Ambassadors to push themselves out of their comfort zones to the “learning zone.” She elaborated that this zone, the one between the comfort zone and the “freak out zone,” is where the magic of growing as leader happens. She next included four basic ways leaders influence people- through people and feelings, idea sharing, planning, and the energy leaders bring. After that portion leadership exploration, she transitioned to her next speaking point using the Kid President quote, “You can’t be sad when you’re holding a cupcake.” She illustrated the perspective of being present by bringing actual cupcakes for a few volunteer Ambassadors, and then proceeding to inquire how they felt when they had the cupcake versus when they did not. The headlining message was to “relish every second” whether that be at the HOBY seminar or back home. Her enthusiasm about leadership and wise words were deserving of an “OUTSTANDING” cheer from the seminar participants!
 The second speaker was the Director of Phaseology, Sarah Koehn. She was speaking on “everyone’s favorite subject”- himself or herself. She quizzed her attentive audience on what they thought the definition of a leader was. There were a wide variety of responses to this tough question. One ambassador replied that there were no specific sets of qualities that a person would have to possess to be a leader. Anyone could be a leader if they set their mind to it. The quality would vary based on what they did with the qualities they had within themselves. One specific point that Koehn put special emphasis on was “a leader leads by example whether they intend to or not.” |   |
