Wesleyan Argus Feature Article

Great feature in the Wesleyan Argus before Spring Break by Isabel Rouse '14. Loved the positive press:
(http://wesleyanargus.com/2011/03/01/cciv-420-02-leading-the-way/)

There are some who believe that leaders are born, not made, but Joseph Giaimo ’11 would argue otherwise. One of Giaimo’s goals in his student forum “CCIV420-02: Leadership, Mentoring, and Coaching” is to help his 14 fellow students start that journey to finding their inner leader.
“I kind of call the course ‘Strategies of Leadership’ as well,” Giaimo said. “My preliminary, rough thesis is that some of the best leaders are the people who are willing to learn certain traits and learn from positive and negative experiences, but be themselves while doing that. I wanted it to be an inspiring journey for my students to find their inner leader, whether you have or do not have it already. A lot of the kids haven’t already experienced it. Some of these kids have been leaders already, but they still can’t define it.”
The forum isn’t meant to be a self-help course. On the contrary, Giaimo has formulated a syllabus with scholarly articles, guest speakers, and a general goal to learn about leadership in an academic format.

“I started thinking about it last year during the spring,” Giaimo said. “It was originally inspired by some negative experience that I’ve had with coaches, and I started thinking about what I envisioned as leadership. I read some John Wooden [former coach of UCLA basketball and motivational speaker] books over the summer, and he became kind of an inspiration. Over the fall I really started developing ideas for it, and started a syllabus. I was also a little inspired by [Professor of Government] Elvin Lim, for the way he taught and inspired his own students. One thing I took from him is to dress up for class, because that’s what he did, and he looked so sharp and professional.”
The format of Giaimo’s forum is much like many other humanities classes. He lectures for the first part of it, with slides and prepared questions, and then has his students ask their own questions. Todd Keats ’11 described the class as very open and dynamic.
It's always exciting Keats said. We’ll go over the reading we had for homework and then move on to some new material that Joe or one of the students wanted to show. Class is very open and Joe doesn’t mind talking about current events or something a student wants to bring up. He is extremely professional, yet willing to share his own experiences, which really help direct class discussions. We use a lot of personal anecdotes to discuss the idea of leadership and how we can better implement our own leadership tactics in real life.
Giaimo believes that everyone has something to add to the idea of being a leader.
“I try to relate different people’s experiences and intertwine them into the lecture – which is beautiful in its own way,” Giaimo said.
Originally, Giaimo had planned to make his forum a more practical, applied class, but his first proposal got denied.
“I had to revise it. It was deemed too much of a business management class, and I had to make it more ‘liberal artsy.’ I got more journal articles—something that you’d read in other classes— and what I’ve tried to explain is that there’s no real formula to leadership. It’s not a perfect science, and what makes this class more theoretical is that you’re probing for answers, raising questions. For example, the big questions that came up last class were based on the article “Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership” by Kouzes and Posner. They argue leadership isn’t innate. It’s a learnable and observable set of practices, incorporating things into your own life, but you have to be yourself. That’s the tricky part—which is why there are more followers in this world than leaders.”
Giaimo and his forum have already tried to define leadership, and interpret it in different contexts. They have studied diverse leadership figures—from politicians like Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, to coaches like Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan.
“Last class, we talked about how a leader is a renegade, because you aren’t afraid of taking risks, of failing, of going above and beyond,” Giaimo said. “However, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no right or wrong answer, and that’s what I’ve pulled from a lot of my classes here.”
Many of his students agreed with Giaimo. There was a consensus that one of the most important lessons they’ve learned so far is both the diversity of leadership styles, and also the appearance of similar qualities among different types of leaders.

“The most interesting thing has been that all of our readings have, in some way, hit on the same themes,” said Jonathan Sheehan ’11, a student in the forum. “Treating those under you with respect, getting those you lead on board, and leading by example.”
Peter Taylor ’12 agreed with Sheehan, adding that, even though this class was based in the theoretical, he has found a lot of practical applications for it as well.
“I signed up for the forum because this class teaches you material that you can directly use in the future,” wrote Taylor in an email to The Argus. “Understanding leadership and how to exhibit those skills is an important asset to have in life both during and after school.”
So far, Giaimo has indeed tried to combine both the academic side of leadership with applied, real-life experiences. Sometimes Giaimo will bring in media clips to supplement the diverse readings that range from “Reflections From On and Off the Court,” by former NCAA Basketball Coach John Wooden, and "Good to Great” by Jim Collins, a book on business leadership. Giaimo has had baseball coach and Wesleyan Alum Mark Woodworth guest lecture, and next up is football coach Mike Whalen. He has also booked President Michael Roth in the upcoming weeks, and Lim for future classes, now that they are moving into historical discussions of dictators as leaders.
“Joe is incredibly prepared,” Sheehan said. He always has links ready on his power point. Everything we talk about is relevant, and he is great at keeping everyone engaged.
Taylor explained how the forum’s open discussions have created a great class dynamic.
“This class has more than met my expectations,” wrote Taylor. “I’ve had a great time and learned a lot thus far. What has surprised me is Joey’s ability to lecture and keep all of us engaged. It’s very difficult to do this, especially without prior experience, and I’ve been very impressed. Overall the class is one of those rare classes that you look forward to going to.”
Giaimo hasn’t limited his work to the classroom, however. He also keeps a blog called “Strategies of Leadership” (which can be found at www.leadershipatwesleyanu.blogspot.com). He posts at least once a week, on either things he’s found on the internet that relate to the class, or simply relaying what they went over in class that day.
“I’ve been getting a lot of viewership on my blog,” Giaimo said. “I’ve sent it to some teachers, and it’s on Facebook as well. With my blog I’ve been able to reach even more people.”
His latest post was entitled “Learning to Lead,” and although it touched on much of what they covered in their last class, Giaimo also brought in some personal experiences. He demonstrated how what he has learned in class can be applied in real life, and often mentioned one anecdote or another to merge the theoretical with the practical. Sometimes he will post videos, such as President Barack Obama’s speech, or a clip of a coach. He’s had guest posters, as well, such as Tom Salah ’12, who is not enrolled in the class but has taken much of Giaimo’s lessons to heart.
“This world is full of personalities, and great leaders are the ones who can adopt those different ways to make their players perform at the highest level,” Salah wrote on Feb. 7.
It hasn’t been an easy road, but Giaimo believes he is having the experience of a lifetime. Although he thinks he is learning just as much as his students, it is clear that Giaimo himself is one of the leaders that he lectures about. He has managed to inspire an entire class to pay attention to his lectures and engage in weekly three-hour discussions—no mean feat for a student the same age as his peers.
“I have a newfound appreciation for what teachers and professors do when I think about how hard it is to get through to kids and really inspire them,” Giaimo said. “Now when I’m in class, I speak up more often than I ever have. I’ve been surprised about how hard teaching is. But I love connecting with my students, and even if a lot of them are my friends, they kind of respect me when I’m up there. It’s been an awesome experience having Wesleyan award me this opportunity. I was so honored, and then to be able to lead a class and try to inspire others. It’s what a teacher does, and that’s what I’m doing.”