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Well hello. My name is Michael Stark and I am the Associate Director for Residential
Living & Learning. And my leadership tip... it's really, I've got like one and a half
leadership tips. So, first off, to me leadership is action. So it's not as static; I'm just
doing. I'm sitting in an office and look I'm a leader. No. Leadership is action. You do
something to help other folks. Right? I have a problem: I want to solve it = action. The
piece about that though I think where students sometimes get, struggle with it is that we
look very far afield. Like what's the major problems? What can I fix? And we get stuck
in this great big world, this big cloud of 'what if's'. And we feel like we don't do
anything. We're spinning our wheels; nothing ever changes. We get disgruntled and unhappy.
And my advice really for you is to focus your locus. What is your sphere of influence? Focus
your energy/your actions on that sphere. So, as a student, I may not be able to change
the world and end child hunger. But, within my own sphere of influence as a student at
this institution, I can raise awareness, I can publicize, I can work with other groups
to do programs, I can try to get a movement started in our area, which very well may grow
to be a bigger movement. But I need to look at, what is my area of influence? What can
I do? Because you don't want to be out there in the big world and being jaded and unhappy,
just disgruntled and complaining. Right? Nobody wants that and you don't want to spend your
energy doing that. You want to be focused in: what can I do? Where can I make a difference?
The more energy we spend within that area (our sphere of influence), and really the
more successful you are there, your sphere grows. Your sphere gets bigger. And eventually
you will be able to influence some of those things you weren't able to influence initially.
But because you focused your time and energy where it mattered and you brought power to
a point, that's the good stuff. That's where you're going to go further. That's where you're
going to make a bigger difference. And so I would ask that you use your advisors, use
your peer mentors, your mentors, use your peers who can help you really see what you
can change, what you can't change, what you can enhance. And focus your energy there first
because you will find when you do that, your sphere gets bigger and you can do more.