• Opportunity for reflection is a necessary element of leadership development. Participants must be given time and space to step outside their normal routines of job and family life in order to maximize the time spent on the process of leadership development.
  
  
• Leadership training and application must be given a context. To develop leadership, participants must have a particular issue or body of knowledge with which to work.
  
  
• The interactive nature of participants in a group setting is crucial in leadership development. Opportunities to exchange ideas, work collectively, and build shared experiences create a setting in which leadership can develop. Leadership requires trusting relationships and developing trust among individuals requires time and opportunity.
  
  
• Morals, ethics, and spirituality are necessary elements in leadership development. The ability to understand one’s self makes a person a more effective leader. Leadership programming needs to include opportunities for internal and external experiences. Leaders acknowledge the important role of having an ethical and spiritual dimension within leadership development.
  
  
• Leaders must have an interdisciplinary perspective to social issues. Leaders need broad knowledge about issues before they take action to bring about change. Leaders must be given the opportunity to learn about issues from different disciplines and must be able to use critical thinking skills (e.g., listening, evaluation, synthesis) to process the information presented. Persons from one profession or field of specialty cannot independently solve social issues.
  
  
• Emerging leaders benefit from experiences across social and economic lines, and international borders. In today’s global economy, leaders must be aware of that which takes place outside of our community and our country’s borders. There is no substitute to learning about issues from the people who experience it or who experience it from a position in life different from your own (whether racial, cultural, or economic) to provide perspective.
  
  
• Leaders must understand the complexity of diversity and the value of creating community among diverse individuals, groups, or cultures. Leaders cannot ignore the issue and value of diversity in today’s world.
  
  
• Leaders need mentors to continue to develop. Mentors are an essential element to leadership development. The mentors chosen need to be experienced leaders who can communicate about their own journeys to help others grow.
  
  
• Acknowledging a person’s leadership role or ability contributes to that person’s effectiveness as a leader. Recognizing a person (not in a traditional position of leadership) as a leader or an emerging leader can inspire and give authenticity to that person as a leader.
  
  

1. Self-Knowledge. Leaders know how to use their strengths and know how to manage their weaknesses; and are able to assume responsibility for their own decisions and actions. Leaders also know what they stand for (their ethics, morals, and values).
   
   
2. Interpersonal Skills Ability. Leaders have the ability and the resolve to apply effective interpersonal skills to manage and resolve conflict, empower others, and to build and maintain relationships.
   
   
3. Flexibility and Adaptability. Leaders understand that change is inevitable and that flexibility and adaptability are required to successfully address challenges or issues that arise.
   
   
4. Creative Thinking. Leaders use creative thinking to find solutions to new or old problems.
   
   
5. Commitment to Service. Leaders possess a strong commitment to serve and an ability to be sensitive to individual needs.
   
   
6. Technological Mastery. Leaders understand the role of technology and are able to utilize it.
   
   
7. Public Policy. Leaders understand the role of public policy, have a working knowledge of how policy is made, and are able to navigate and build partnerships among the various public sectors.

1. Listening. The servant-leader must actively listen in order to identify or clarify the will of a group. Active listening is done by listening and being receptive to what is being said and to what is not being said.
   
   
2. Empathy. The servant-leader knows how to empathize with others, recognizing that there is a difference between actions and behaviors and the underlying person.
   
   
3. Healing. The ability to heal one’s self and one’s relationship with others is one of the strengths of servant-leadership.
   
   
4. Awareness. Awareness, general and personal, enables one to understand issues involving ethics, power, and values and to view issues from a more integrated holistic position.
   
   
5. Persuasion. Servant-leaders rely on persuasion and building consensus instead of on coercion from their position of authority.
   
   
6. Conceptualization. Servant-leaders must balance conceptual thinking and thinking about day-to-day operations. Being able to think beyond the day-to-day realities and to envision a broader plan requires discipline and practice.
   
   
7. Foresight. The ability to see the likely outcome of a situation based on past experiences, current realities and future decisions.
   
   
8. Stewardship. A view that all institutions are held in trust for the greater good of society. It also reinforces the use of persuasion versus control.
   
   
9. Commitment to the growth of people. Servant-leaders believe that people have value beyond their identities as workers; therefore, they have a responsibility to assist the personal and professional growth of those led.

• Measure success in terms of the people served, not the number of issues addressed. Leadership development is about people.
  
  
• Focus on people issues (not leadership theory) in leadership training and include activities that provide for experiential learning and require participant interaction and dialogue.
  
  
• Know your audience. Ask what type of training would be most beneficial. People who are given the opportunity to self-direct learning gain the most from it.
  
  
• Evaluate and adapt programs as necessary to meet participant needs. The program must have the flexibility to grow and change to meet the needs of participants.
  
  
• Find project leaders and staff who share the goal of developing leadership capacity in your target audience (e.g., American Indian community members, youth, women, elected officials). The attitudes, sensitivities and skills of project leaders are important. Trainers should be patient, sensitive, and open to learning about other cultures, not sympathetic or patronizing.
  
  
• Recruit applicants through personal invitations instead of public notices or general mailings.
  
  
• Leadership development and community action are closely tied together.
  
  
• Provide financial support for action projects to allow participants to exercise their training. Implementation of an action project can provide the experiential foundation for participants to become confident in their ability to take on larger community action projects.

• Spirituality was a core element of American Indian life and all leadership possessed spiritual significance.
  
  
• Leaders demonstrated generosity and kindness, and honored all living things.
  
  
• Elders cultivated the leadership of future generations.
  
  
• American Indian leaders were humble servants to the community. Individuals did not seek leadership. Leaders emerged from their contributions to the community and the people recognized and selected those considered most able to lead.
  
  
• No one person was always a leader and many were leaders at different times.
  
  
• The community could cease to recognize leaders by simply choosing to not follow him or her.
  
  
• American Indian leaders led by example rather than by authority or command.
  
  
• American Indian leaders took their time when making a decision. When they gave their word on a decision it was a final, binding pledge.
  
  
• When tribal leaders met to deliberate on a matter they sought understanding and consensus through mutual inquiry. There was no debate.
  
  
• American Indian methods of resolving social conflict were based on the concept of restitution that focused on restoring respectful personal and social relations.

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