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Jayhawks in leadership positions are everywhere you look, including through the Jayhawk Career Network. KU Alumni, in partnership with SumnerOne, is highlighting Jayhawk leaders who are models for others in their industries with our “Copy the Leader” program.
For this month’s Copy the Leader spotlight, we summarized the collective knowledge, wisdom, and advice from all the alumni featured in Copy the Leader in 2024.
A special thanks to these former KJHK DJs, Spirit Squad members, KU athletes, officers in student organizations, members of the Greek community and students from all across KU. These students are now leaders in government, health care, banking, alumni relations, teaching, music, human resources, community development, as well as mentors to current KU students, national network volunteers, alumni affinity organization officers, and donors.
What do you do in your work?
- Develop leaders and an engaged workforce within the healthcare industry
- Lead school operations to promote collaborative learning and enable pathways of success for all learners
- Lead the department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and teach college students
- Focus on delivering exceptional service and strategic guidance to clients
- Concentrate on diversity, equity, and inclusion talent development
- Teach and coach at the high school level
- DJ all over the world and founded the world’s first record label for robots
- Create programs that support KU alumni communities that share interests, backgrounds, or identities
- Collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, victims of crime, and the operations of justice systems
- Support American Indian Youth and my community
- Conduct internal/external training on the Community Reinvestment Act and manage process improvement projects
What are the qualities of a good leader? Leaders:
- Build success through people on their team
- Develop other leaders
- Listen and communicate. They are positive, encouraging, and respectful
- Lead by example
- Demonstrate authentic, caring, and inquisitive natures
- Create safe learning and teaching environments
- Adaptable, value driven, empathetic, and resilient.
- Articulate a clear vision and effectively provide feedback and foster collaboration
- Must be masters of their trade
- Show respect, bravery, and build culture
- Value everyone equally
How do you practice leadership at your job?
- Focus on human connection
- Keep learning
- Act as a servant leader
- Work with energy, demonstrate empathy, and have fun
- Demonstrate the ability and passion for investing in others’ career journeys
- Show up every day and do your absolute best
- Be comfortable with ambiguity
- Create an inclusive environment where people feel valued
- Take initiative
- Share opportunities, open doors for others
What makes a team or group successful?
- Well-defined, unified mission and guiding values
- Responsibility and diligence
- Working together to solve problems
- Mutual respect
- Galvanized and guided by altruism, hedonism, respect, and shared purpose.
- Compromise, finding a role and jumping into it to grow and evolve individually as a team
- Being open to a diversity of viewpoints and skills
- Strong leadership
- Understanding individual strengths and weaknesses within the team
- Recognizing that failure is a possibility and not running from it
How can leaders in your industry help their organizations adapt to change?
- Position change as an opportunity for growth and creativity
- Fully understand the landscape and ecosystem of your industry
- Embrace and harness change
- Listen to staff (employees) and be strategic
- Slow down
- Stay informed
- Leverage developments in technology
- Reconnect with the old ways and reconnect with our traditions
- Communicate clearly and concisely the why
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