Bay Path University

Bay Pathway Spring/Summer 2020 6 While books and courses are essential for leadership development, if you ask Dr. Joshua Weiss, Bay Path's program director for the MS in Leadership and Negotiation and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation Project, there's another place to begin: by looking in the mirror. "Leadership is within us," Weiss shared. "If you really want to be effective, you have to turn the mirror on yourself first." A firm believer that leaders can be made instead of born, Weiss stresses the importance of strengthening your emotional intelligence and understanding your inner workings before you tackle learning how to lead others. "You have to know yourself, how you think about things, how you approach things, your biases, what helps you, what stands in your way—all of these things impact your thinking," he shared. "Half of your challenges are out there, with other people and the dynamics at play. But half are within you. You'll become a better leader if you focus on the things outside, but you won't become a great leader until you focus on the things inside." For women in particular, some of that work involves breaking out of the traditional cultural and societal roles that are baked into their everyday lives and learning that they are worthy of their goals and ambitions. "Asserting for themselves is the biggest problem for many of my students," shared Weiss. "They've been put into positions where they've tried to be assertive and it wasn't met with the response they were hoping for." Weiss offers a two-step approach to overcome this challenge. First, it's important to understand the difference between being assertive and being aggressive. "Assertiveness is standing on your own two feet," said Weiss. "Aggressiveness is standing on someone else's toes to get to where you want to go. Effective leaders don't step on other's toes. You may get a boost up by doing that, but you're making an enemy." Once comfortable diving into your assertiveness, it's important to let others know that they can expect a change in you. "It can be difficult for coworkers to accept a quick, sudden, 'lean in' type of change," Weiss said, referring to the Sheryl Sandberg book that sparked these types of discussions around dinner tables and conference tables everywhere in 2013. "You have to communicate that you are no longer willing to have your "IN TODAY'S WORLD, MORE THAN EVER BEFORE, WE NEED PEOPLE TO ACT LIKE LEADERS." Dr. Joshua Weiss, program director for Bay Path's Leadership and Negotiation graduate program

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