Scott Hawkins Leadership Institute: Transforming Young Links into Leaders

Consider Michelle Obama. How did this Ivy-league educated, confident spouse of Presidential contender, Barack Obama become the woman she is today? What happened in the life experience of this extraordinary African American woman to catapult her into contention for one of the most prestigious positions in the world – the first African American first lady in American history, the most influential position a woman can hold in service to our nation?

Surely, there are many factors – but, mastering the multifaceted nature of leadership has to be among them. After navigating the racial challenges at Princeton, largely segregated at the time, and finishing Harvard Law, Michelle Obama worked as a corporate lawyer and for a major city hospital in Chicago. Much of that steel confidence we observe in her is based upon family roots, remaining true to her values, and staying in-command of the situation to get things done through other people. She represents a kind of inspirational or transformational leadership style vital to the success of any organization. Her success is all about leadership and it’s a learned skill.

The Scott Hawkins Leadership Institute (SHLI) is on a mission to develop similar skills among its younger membership. Established in 2004 under the visionary leadership of Link Gladys Gary Vaughn, Ph.D., she understood that organizations that neglect to nurture their younger members risk survival as the history of black organizations reveals. She took the position that if The Links, Incorporated was to thrive, it had to develop a mechanism for training young women to take the reins of leadership to make a difference in their chapters, communities, the nation, and the world. This effort was also about mentoring young members by example and supporting them in the process of achieving those skills. Recognizing that mistakes will be made, it is the careful, sensitive, leader who works through the issues to obtain an outstanding result. The initiation of this institute was a bold and innovative move. Bold because Link Gladys knew change would translate into challenge, cognizant that though it might alienate the status quo, the training and transfer of intergenerational leadership was of critical importance to sustain the organization. Innovative, because it tapped into a legacy of strong African American women who historically had to make a way when there seemed to be no way.

In its fifth year, the SHLI is led by Link Jayne Baccus Khallifa, dean, who is uniquely qualified for this role. Link Jayne is Deputy City Coordinator for the City of Minneapolis – the first African American woman to hold this position. Today, she is responsible for all services to be delivered for the Republican National Convention. Her mantra is “Leadership is not a dais moment.” Her philosophy of leadership is simple – “It’s not about being famous, it’s about bringing value to the organization.” Links Jan Collins-Eaglin and Deborah Brittain, associate deans, bring a wealth of knowledge, experience and commitment to the Institute and work collaboratively with Link Khallifa. Link Jan Collins-Eaglin, a clinical psychologist, is dean of administration and testing and Link Deborah Brittain is dean of faculty and curriculum. She is past International President of The Junior League, the first African American to hold this position.

Since its inception, the institute has trained one-hundred-sixty-two Link Fellows, ages twenty-one to forty-five, and in 2008, sixty women were readied to assume the mantle of leadership. Fellows are nominated by chapter presidents who get applications from area directors who also make the final selection. Each area has ten slots. Past national presidents can select one person and the sitting president selects three.

The SHLI employs the servant leadership model – “lead with respect.” The curriculum focuses on six dimensions of leadership: (1) leadership development; (2) organization effectiveness; (3) mental health; (4) community/civic engagement; (5) health, wellness and spirituality, and (6) mentoring. Emotional intelligence, a critical factor in leadership, is considered one of the most important elements of the program that allows participants to engage in self-evaluation, to determine their leadership style and to use this knowledge to understand intergenerational differences in the process of decision-making. The case study methodology is utilized as Fellows take “real life” situations at chapter and area levels to analyze how skills learned can be utilized to problem solve. What better laboratory than the Fellows’ own chapters and areas for use as subjects for analysis and problem solving? On-line caucuses are an additional tool used to bring participants from all over the country together to discuss issues. Fellows are required to work in teams of five to create and implement a community service project. One of the most rewarding aspects of the training is that participants get to know each other on a personal level making important life-long connections across our geographic areas.

The historical and organizational legacy behind this effort of growing leaders deserves some reflection. The strength and impact of African American women on America cannot be over stated. We’ve had to make our own way in spite of racism, sexism, odds confronted by no other group of women in this country. Toni Morrison characterized it best... “she [black women] had nothing to fall back on; not maleness, not whiteness, not ladyhood, not anything. And out of the profound desolation of her reality she may well have invented herself.”

How reassuring it was to learn from Link Khallifa that one of the most important books on African American women, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America, by Paula Giddings, professor of African American Studies at Smith College is required reading. It is out of a strong legacy of African American women that she writes about (1) Ida B. Wells, who organized the first anti-lynching campaign; (2) Mary Church Terrell, leader in the women’s suffrage movement, “who according to Howard University archivist Dorothy Porter, established more schools for black children than anyone during the period 1828-1846;” (3) Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharecropper who risked her life to register to vote and became an instructor in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) voter registration program in 1963; and (4) Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for President of the United States in 1972. Our founders, Sarah Scott and Margaret Hawkins, can be counted among those distinguished women who also identified that social and civic reform needed in Philadelphia over sixty-years ago by establishing the first chapter of The Links, Incorporated. These so-called black women activists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, dedicated to social justice and equality, were all clubwomen, and that is the point. It was through organizational leadership that they were able to embrace the larger purpose and out of these wise women, paraphrasing Zora Neale Hurston, “[We] are made to be.” Out of those formal and informal organizations, which include contemporary African American leaders, women responded to the issues and provided leadership that endures and informs the challenges of our organization and communities. Their commitment serves not only as a historical model for what women have done, but further demonstrates what can and will be done in the 21st century.

Within this context, the deans of the SHLI continue to advance the development of our younger members. Their role creates a sacred trust in The Links, Incorporated, and holds high the belief that the work is important enough to sacrifice for its success. These 21st century leaders of the SHLI are indeed making an extraordinary contribution and it is Link Khalifa’s belief that, “We need to engage program recipients in order to leave a foot print for the future – to go a couple of layers deeper to develop those skills that will ensure sustainability, vital to the future achievements of our young Link women.” Links of long-standing have a role as well. It requires that we lead by example and embrace the future knowing that their success is truly our own; the antithesis holds true as well.