Nov 7: Leadership & the Art of Struggle: A New Conversation about Leadership

Leadership is often a struggle, yet cultural norms often dismiss struggle as a sign of weakness or incompetence.  Steven Snyder’s new book, Leadership and the Art of Struggle, poses the question: what if we stop thinking about struggle as a negative, and instead embrace it as a natural part of leadership, focusing on the learning opportunities that it affords?

In this workshop session, Steven will introduce a new leadership lens, the Struggle Lens, opening a new conversation about leadership.  He will share his research exploring this lens, and then, through a set of exercises, invite you to join in on the conversation. 

During this session, you will first apply the Struggle Lens to your own leadership narrative.  Then, we will expand the conversation, exploring new ways to frame an organizational dialogue. Hopefully, you will leave the session with a new set of possibilities for navigating through conflict and adversity.

steven-synder

Steven Snyder is founder of the Snyder Leadership Group, a consulting firm dedicated to cultivating inspired leadership. Steven was an early leader at Microsoft, where he worked closely with Bill Gates.  He was co-founder and CEO of Net Perceptions, where he won the first World Technology Award for Commerce. Steven is currently an Executive Fellow at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota. His first book, Leadership and the Art of Struggle: How Great Leaders Grow Through Challenge and Adversity, was published in March 2013 by Berrett-Koehler. 

What are people saying about Steven Snyder?

"Seasoned OD professionals know that transformational change embodies struggle. Steven Synder’s book, Leadership and the art of struggle, provides language, tools and useful perspective how leaders can learn from their own career struggles as they attempt to be a force for organizational change.  If you believe effective change requires leaders to have personal insight how they attend to their own struggles, then this MNODN session is for you!"

~Marc Sokol

Sage Consulting Resources, LLC

(Current member of the MNODN)

"Steven is probably one of the smartest people I know.  I have known Steven for more than 20 years.  He came to PDI to lead the development of some revolutionary software tools, did a great job, and moved on.  I kept in touch with Steven over the years, and spoke with him a number of times while he was writing this book.  He is a very thoughtful, insightful guy with a powerful message about the realities of leadership, learning from struggle.  I endorse him wholeheartedly."

~Lou Quast

Associate Chair, Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development

College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota

(Presented 'Leadership Patterns and Career Derailment' at MNODN May 11, 2012)

"I worked with Steven many years ago when he was at PDI. He was one of the first people I knew who was trying to unite technology and psychology. It got me thinking about that intersection and had a lasting influence on my career. Looking forward to his talk."

~Bruce Sevy

Director, Leadership Assessment

PDI Ninth House, a Korn/Ferry company

"As a CEO of a public company, Steven Snyder has been there himself. But he hasn’t stopped there. He’s captured the wisdom of well-known leaders from some of the world’s most successful companies in his book “

Leadership and the Art of Struggle

” (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Richard Schulze, to name a few). We’re delighted and honored to have Steven join MNODN on 11/7/2013 to discuss his book and share what he’s learned, and what we can learn, through the art of struggle. You won’t want to miss it!"

~Julie (Moore) Rapacki

Management Consultant, Senior

State of Minnesota

(Chair @ Minnesota Organization Development Network)  

5:30 pm networking; program starts at 6:00 pm

To register, click here.