Driving Through Transformational Leadership

Dharini Parthasarathy, member of cohort 4 of the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute, explains how learning about transformational leadership is like the freedom of learning how to drive a car.

It was the spring semester of my first year at Miami University when I heard about the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute. I was in two different classes with members of the Leadership Institute (as we like to call it), and they had both approached me about applying for the program. Curious, and always looking for opportunities to get more involved, I talked to them about it and then set up meetings with other members of the Leadership Institute to learn more. Every meeting, every bit of research I did, the videos and flyers I looked at, convinced me that this was an opportunity, the opportunity, for me.
At first, it was because of the Leadership Institute’s affiliation with Lockheed Martin, a company most engineers know and would love to be associated with. And then, it was about the chance to be involved in the events they put on, like Engineers Week, and even possibly be in charge of them. There was also a small (okay, large) part of me that wanted to apply because the members of the Leadership Institute seemed like part of an elite group, and I wanted to be a part of that. So, yes, at first I was guided by extrinsic motivations. At first, those were the only kind I knew. At that time, the word ‘Leadership’ was shadowed by ‘Lockheed Martin,’ and even ‘Institute.’
My motivations changed quite early in the application process, to be honest. And it coincided with the time I first met Louise Morman, the Executive Director of the Leadership Institute. My meeting with her was one step in the application process, and something about which I was quite nervous. How was I to prove to her that I was worthy of membership in this elite, experienced, group of people? I was sitting there, thinking up answers (that I hoped were extraordinary) to unasked questions, when the interview began. Professor Morman spent more than half of the interview time talking about the Leadership Institute, and her reasons for creating it. She talked about its purpose. Part of me was happy that I wasn’t being asked questions, but a bigger part of me was focused on listening to her.
Transformational leadership. That was a phrase she used that I’d never heard before, and the purpose behind the Leadership Institute. It was an impressive phrase to hear then, even if I didn’t completely understand what it meant. Even now, in my third year in the Leadership Institute, I don’t have a textbook definition for it. But I know now what it means to me. To me, transformational leadership is a journey. It is driving on a long, meandering, road that sometimes has sharp turns, maybe even a hill or two, and with the occasional rest stop for us to recuperate, wash our faces, and check to make sure we’re still up to continue driving. It is a journey without a destination, where we create the road signs and the speed limit. Though we need not travel alone and there can be other cars on the road with us with us, for the most part, this journey—the transformation—is one we make for ourselves.
So when I got accepted into the Leadership Institute, it was like I had been given a driver’s permit. My travel the first year in the Leadership Institute was on a stretch of road titled ‘Personal Leadership.’ We—that is my cohort in the Leadership Institute—did several assessments such as the Myers Briggs, which helped us understand who were as leaders, our strengths and weaknesses, our stressors, and how we would work as part of a team. We watched videos about focus and emotional intelligence, about blindspots and biases, read books such as the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the Harvard Business Reviews Must Reads on Leadership, and also listened to speakers from all walks of life and leaders in their own way. We learned about different ways of doing work, like the Agile Method. We each created a Purpose Statement and a Personal Leadership Development Plan. We even helped with Engineers Week.
What I really learned that year is the power of reflection. Transformation cannot happen unless we decide on what we want to change, to improve upon, and that is through constant reflection and feedback. It was this year in the Leadership Institute that I truly learned that. Through all the books that we read, the videos that we watched, and the speakers that we listened to, I realized that I was not the best leader I could be. There was so much I could learn, so much of myself that I could improve upon, abilities that I could cultivate, stressors that I could work on, and weaknesses that I could recognize and rise above. Reflection, and the willingness to reflect and incorporate what I have learned was my most important lesson from that first year.
My second most important learning from this year was the power of purpose. Through creating my personal purpose statement, a vision board, and my leadership development plan, I was able to visualize what I wanted to do in my life, and how I wanted to be doing it. I go back to my purpose statement often, and try to stay alongside it as best as I can. In fact, my purpose statement is what persuaded me to pursue Student Affairs as my field of study, a change from my current major of Electrical Engineering.
In my second year, titled ‘People Leadership,’ it was like we had passed the driving test and were on our own on the road of transformational leadership. My cohort spearheaded an Institute-wide project called Listen4Insight, where we created podcasts on creativity, innovation and leadership in conjunction with MiamIdeas—a university wide effort to pursue creativity and innovation. We still kept up with our own learning and transformation, of course, through books such as the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, Art of Possibility, and the 46 rules of Genius. We learned more about mindsight, positive intelligence, our saboteurs and our sages. We started really incorporating what we had learned into our teams and projects. This year gave us a chance to lead, to make mistakes, and to improve. It gave us a real world deliverable that we were completely in charge of, and where many of the motivations were intrinsic. We put to use what we had learned about ourselves that first year, all those reflections, and grew from it—transformed. Constant improvement was the theme of the year, almost, and I like to think we worked towards that.
Now in my third year in the Leadership Institute, the program is focused Strategic Leadership, and what it means to lead a long-term, sustainable organization in a competitive and culturally diverse environment. We are now reading books like Strategic Leadership, and going deep into our own individual styles of leadership, and how we may over or underuse those talents. We formed True North teams, and completed the True North Fieldbook. We are working on expanding our Cultural Intelligence and are conducting External Environmental Analyses for our future fields and careers. Our motivations now are both intrinsic and extrinsic. We’ve had enough practice driving, that we can make our own way on this road. We can identify danger signs, and can make detours. Each of us is finding our own path in life, either in the industry or through graduate school in a variety of fields. We have all grown so much as leaders, and we are in the mindset to always learn and grow more, to keep transforming.
Across the three years, we have worked by learning, doing, and then being—a trifold overlapped and looped cycle. Where we focused on learning our first year, we practiced doing our second year, and now we integrate our learnings and insights into being a transformational leader. I am now driving steadily on the road of my transformational leadership journey, in a steady car with both hands on the steering wheel. I am living a life with both purpose and passion. The Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute has introduced me to so much, has allowed me to recognize and reflect on my experiences, and then act on my insights. I am a better person because of the Leadership Institute, and someone who is looking forward to the rest of my transformational leadership, and my life.
Funny thing is, I can’t actually drive (never learned!)

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