TIGER TV ONLINE REPORTER
Tim Elmore, author of the Habittudes series, came to speak to students on Friday, August 28 and Saturday August 29.
“Habittudes” are leadership forming habits and attitudes. Elmore has written three books on this idea and has lectured at many universities including Baylor, Duke, Stanford, University of Texas and University of South Carolina. He has also appeared on ABC Family to talk about his books.
Elmore feels that it is important to talk to students about leadership while they are in college.
“Coming to university is the step between high school and the real world,” Elmore said. “This is the time when you learn about success in the real world.”
The main theme of his lecture was the difference between an outward shell and an inward reality. Elmore used a banana, an orange and a lollipop to demonstrate this idea. All three items have an outside wrapper but the good stuff is what’s inside.
“I really do believe that your success in college is an inside out job,” Elmore said. “This is a time when you’re constantly going to be tempted to make outward changes and to change your appearance but success is based on the changes you make on the inside.”
Elmore used four different images in his lecture; the iceberg, rivers and floods, drivers and passengers and emotional fuel. According to Elmore, most people are visual learners so he likes to use these images as a way for people to comprehend and remember his message.
“The images are cool because they work as a great memory jogger,” said Deanna Caesar, communication studies senior.
This first image, the iceberg, was used as a symbol for skills and character. Only 10 percent of an iceberg is shown above the surface and the other 90 percent stays hidden. This is similar to people. The 10 percent we see on the surface is a person’s skills and the other 90 percent is a person’s character.
“It’s always what’s below the surface that sinks the ship,” Elmore said.
Elmore’s four ingredients to character are self discipline, emotional security, core values and personal identity.
Rivers and floods were used to demonstrate the power of focus and vision. Floods are unfocused. They spill over in every direction and because of this they are usually damaging. Rivers move with an obvious direction and if used correctly can be very helpful.
Elmore said that students need to learn to say no sometimes and figure out what their direction is. He thinks a student can’t be involved in every organization and make straight A’s and have a social life.
“You can do anything, but you can’t do everything,” Elmore said.
The third image was drivers and passengers. Passengers are there just to pass the time and have fun, but Elmore said that there comes a point where students need to mature and become drivers of their own life.
The final image in Elmore’s lecture was emotional fuel. Elmore said that being a leader is emotionally exhausting because much of the time it will feel like the people in your life always need something from you.
“If you’re the leader of anything, you’re going to find that it is emotionally exhausting,” Elmore said. “You need to surround yourself with people that will help you to emotionally refuel.
Elmore said it is important to have mentors, mentees, heroes, role models, an inner circle and partners to use as emotional fuel.
