John Jones poses questions to the audience and answers questions about his personal experiences. (Photo by Ian Keel).John Jones poses questions to the audience and answers questions about his personal experiences. (Photo by Ian Keel).
Mark Linn – News Editor
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John Jones, Ph.D., the vice president of Student Affairs, sat down with students to discuss what it means to be a leader on Oct. 28 at the RLC as part of UAB LEAD’s Lunch with a Leader discussion series.
Lunch with a Leader and Dinner with a Dean are part of a series of discussions taking place throughout the semester hosted by UAB LEAD. This student-run organization started in 2012 with the stated goal of providing quality leadership training to students at UAB. LEAD is also responsible for the Fall Leadership Conference and the Winter Leadership Retreat.
Jones opened up the luncheon by explaining his view in what people look for in a good leader.
“The first thing people look for is integrity, having the best interest of the group in mind even when that may not be in the leader’s own self-interest,” Jones said.
“Leaders with integrity are comfortable adding people more talented than they are to their team. When things go wrong – which they will – they take responsibility rather than throw their subordinates under the proverbial bus, or blame failures on unforeseeable events. Make no mistake, leadership is an honor that often requires sacrifice.”
Other skills Jones said were necessary for a good leader are the ability to perform under pressure, to strike a balance between optimism and overconfidence, to have empathy for the team under them and to be authentic.
After the opening remarks on leadership, Jones posed a series of questions to students. His first question referenced UAB’s tagline: “knowledge that will change your world.”
“So how will that knowledge change your world? What kind of decisions are you making that are different than you used to make?” Jones said.
“Now that I’ve come to UAB I’ve been able to learn from all my experiences, whether it be from the diversity of campus or just learn from individuals, my peers, everyone like that. And now I’ve come into positions where I can actually show people how they can do that as well,” one student said.
Another question Jones posed was whether leadership was an innate quality, or a learned skill.
“Leadership isn’t something like a gift, something you’re born with. I would say charisma can be, and if you’re very charismatic people would want to follow you,” another student said. “But when it comes to good effective leadership it comes from your failures, your attempts at being a leader more than anything.”
One of the final questions Jones asked the audience was about their personal decision-making process.
“It really depends on the situation you’re in. Sometimes you have to make an executive decision and you really don’t have time to wait and you want to be confident in making that decision,” an audience member said. “But also with a leader you want to make sure you surround yourselves with people who can help you make those decisions. You just have to be confident in your decision making ability and when you do it in people’s best interests and the goals of the organization you’ll be okay.”
The next event in the discussion series is Dinner with a Dean on Nov. 11 at 6-7:30 p.m. at the RLC with Max Michael, M.D., the Dean of the School of Public Health.
