Dr. Bruce Fisher's last Leadership Academy seminar
“Develop courage, develop confidence,” said Dr. Bruce Fisher in his last hoorah as Director of IIT’s Leadership Academy. This last address was a leadership seminar titled “Understand Yourself, Lead Others” and was presented by Fisher to an audience of roughly 80-90 undergraduate students at the Armour Dining Hall last Saturday. Each was eager to gain some of Fisher’s prodigious wisdom before he bids farewell to the IIT community later this week. The seminar took place a day after applications for the Leadership Academy Scholarship were due, of which there are 13 available this semester, making the atmosphere inside of the dining hall calmly laid-back, yet focused and intense. Dr. Fisher’s familiar humor and compassionate insight made for an enjoyable experience, leaving many budding leaders motivated and inspired to make positive, lasting changes both in their own lives and the lives of others through leadership.
This interactive seminar was unique in that it provided an in-depth personality evaluation through completion of the Myer’s-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). First published in 1962, the MBTI is a preference-based questionnaire made up of 93 subjective questions used to determine one’s personality type. With the objectives of the seminar being self-insight, understanding, and the awareness of individual differences, the MBTI proved to be a stellar measure of personal style and leadership approach. Once the test had been administered, students were able to score themselves and find out their personality type, of which there are 16 in total. These personality types are deduced by the participant’s scores between four bi-polar scales of attributes, including: extroversion vs. introversion, sensing vs. intuition, thinking vs. feeling, and judging vs. perception.
As the seminar progressed, Fisher aided the students in understanding the fundamental differences between personality types and how to go about becoming psychologically patriotic while developing flexibility and versatility. In an analogy to basketball, Fisher stated, “You’ve got to learn how to go left!” – meaning that always playing to your strong suit and seldom balancing your approach to problems will result in an inability to lead effectively; developing a versatile personality is essential to working with others and making a positive impact. Fisher also explained how to give people constructive feedback, another critical element of an effective leader. Many group exercises were facilitated throughout the seminar to heighten the awareness of our individual differences, examine the themes that exist amongst those with similar personalities, and instill within us that the best teams have diversity of leadership style, especially at a place like IIT.
At the seminar’s close, a standing ovation erupted for Dr. Fisher, providing a fitting end to his selfless career which began at IIT many years ago and has helped pave a successful path for countless students and the university alike. There will be many more leadership seminars in the future, but Bruce’s charismatic presence, charming wit, and professional insight will surely be missed. We salute you, Dr. Fisher!
