The guest on this episode is one of my professors and mentors in Servant Leadership, Dr. Josh Armstrong, who shares with us the importance of creating a psychologically safe space where we can have real conversations and make meaningful connections with the people around us. We talk about some of the experiences I had in his classes and he talks about how he is trying to become an emotional scientist to recognize personal feelings while encountering the feelings of others in healthy ways. Josh believes people long to connect and that we all have expectations for the teams we are on that we too often don’t vocalize. We have some great discussion on how to approach conflict and to resist avoiding uncomfortable conversations. Dr. Armstrong shares some great book recommendations and one is a recent book he read on the importance of creating rituals and we share some of our own personal rituals. As we create real meaningful connections and help people feel safe and present, we can create real harmony in our teams, but in order to do so we have to resist staying in the artificial harmony we too often settle for.
Dr. Josh Armstrong is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership and Faculty Director of the Comprehensive Leadership Program for undergraduate students at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He holds a Ph.D. in education and leadership from Michigan State University, a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs from the University of Vermont, and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Whitworth College. Dr. Armstrong’s research interests include development of intercultural competency, servant leadership, experiential education and adaptative leadership.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Armstrong provides leadership training for student leaders at Gonzaga, and provides vision and student learning opportunities for a campus community of 5,300 students at Gonzaga. For the past fifteen summers, Josh has lead a summer program in Zambia, Africa with undergraduate students at Gonzaga and it always changes his life.
Resources:
Marc Brackett – Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence to Achieve Well-being and Success https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Feel-Emotional-Intelligence-Well-Being/dp/1250212839/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VJL3E8HCELAW&keywords=marc+brackett&qid=1652248292&s=books&sprefix=marc+brac%2Cstripbooks%2C97&sr=1-1
Erica Keswin – Rituals Roadmap: The Human Way to Transform Everyday Routines into Workplace Magic https://www.amazon.com/Rituals-Roadmap-Transform-Everyday-Workplace/dp/1260461890/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3AWKY5SPJ0SY3&keywords=erica+keswin&qid=1652248356&s=books&sprefix=erica+keswin%2Cstripbooks%2C79&sr=1-3
Patrick Lencioni – Conflict Continuum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VZERZyY198
Josh Armstrong & Larry Spears – The Accompanying Servant Leadership: Facilitating Change that Builds Engaged Partnerships https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C19&q=The+Accompanying+Servant+Leadership%3A+Facilitating+Change+that+Builds+Engaged+Partnerships%C2%A0&btnG=
