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Sadhana Hall Starts DRIVE Program’s Lecture Series

  • During the DP2 Leadership DRIVE program, Sadhana Hall explains the three most important values in a leader: integrity, authenticity, and authentic listening. Photo by Seamore Zhu. 

  • Sadhana Hall answers questions from students during a lecture on leadership attitude as part of the DRIVE program. Photo by Seamore Zhu. 

This past week, Sadhana Hall, Deputy Director of the Rockefeller Center, kick-started the 2017 summer DRIVE program with a lecture on leadership attitude. The DP2 Leadership DRIVE program, created and directed by Steven Spaulding, focuses on team-building and creating a championship culture among Dartmouth’s student athletes. This year DRIVE welcomed Hall as the first of their guest lecturers. Hall inspired the students with an impassioned and personal speech about knowing how to lead oneself.

Hall spoke about three important values in a leader: integrity, authenticity, and authentic listening. “Integrity is your word. Nothing more, nothing less,” she says. Maintaining truthfulness and promises, whether with oneself or with another person, establishes one’s credibility. Without credibility, one will never have people to lead. She then speaks about authenticity, language, and intent. Words matter—and saying something one does not plan to fulfill is an example of bad character. This, too, will cost a person their followers.

And yet, words aren’t everything. Hall spoke strongly about the importance of non-verbal communication. In the time it takes to build a presence or make an impression, non-verbal communication holds a 55% importance level—more than tonality and actual spoken word combined. “It’s not what you say but what you don’t say…that builds your leadership presence,” Hall says to her audience of budding leaders. She advises them to practice what she calls authentic listening—to give someone speaking your undivided attention. Making eye contact, suspending your judgment, and listening with your whole presence will help you show your respect and build connections.

Hall ends her talk with an optimistic and powerful statement: “Leadership is not always positional.” Her suggestions for character-building were received positively by the students in the room, now stepping in to their third year of college.

 

--Written by Puja Devi ’19, Student Program Assistant for Communications