GETTING TO KNOW YOU 
THE OPENING RETREAT AT THE 27TH "LEADERSHIP ST. LOUIS"
GROUP

By Scanews staff

	The 27th Leadership St. Louis group started their
program with an opening retreat at Cedar Creek Farm
and Conference Center just outside of New Haven, MO on
September 13-14, 2002.  Fifty-nine civic and business
leaders from various segments of the communities
around the bi-state region gathered together to kick
off the nine month long intensive training program.

	The participants were chosen as  a result of a
competitive selection process.  Over 200 applicants
submitted their credentials and only half of them were
short-listed for an interview; 60 applicants were
finally admitted into the program.  Those admitted
include business professionals, public officials,
lawyers, law enforcement officers, bankers, union
personnel, educators, entrepreneurs, community
volunteers, members of the media as well as leaders in
health care, cultural institutions and social service
agencies.  A commitment to improving the quality of
life in the region is an essential qualification for
selection into the program.

	Dr. Ching-ling Tai, a commissioner of the Missouri
Community Service Commission, is the third Chinese
American enrolled in the program since 1976, when the
program was founded by the Danforth Foundation.

	The first session of a two-day overnight retreat was
designed not only for the participants to get to know
each other, but to get to know oneself for the purpose
of team building. Do you know who you are?  Do you
know why people behave differently?  To be a great
leader, one must know how to work with others, know
the differences between people and not only respect
each other's differences, but use these differences
constructively.  When these 60 members were admitted
into the program, everyone was required to complete a
questionnaire to be evaluated by the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI).

	What is MBTI?  MBTI is designed to understand and
identify valuable differences between normal, healthy
people, differences that can be the source of much
misunderstanding and miscommunication.  MBTI will help
to identify your unique gifts, to understand your
motivations, natural strengths and potential areas for
growth.  It will also help you to appreciate people
who differ from you.  Understanding your MBTI type is
self-affirming and encourages cooperation with others.

	The MBTI reports your preferences on four dichotomies
which resulted in sixteen psychological types.  There
is a clear indication of more extroverts who prefer
intuition among the 27th Leadership St. Louis group
than the general population.  These are the people who
prefer to direct their energy and attention outward
and to receive energy from interacting with people and
from taking action.  They prefer to take information
by seeing the big picture, focusing on the
relationships and connections between facts and are
especially attuned to seeing new possibilities.  In
general, more leaders emerge from this type of
psychological profile.

	It was amusing to see how these personality traits
were demonstrated at the retreat when participants
engaged in various activities - from camp caravan,
creative ways of introducing "who are we", to simply
planning a trip.  The two-day retreat provided
participants an opportunity to build a team, to learn
from each other, to share, to compare and to reflect
from one individual, group or community experience. 
It was a great way to enhance self-awareness of
leadership approaches and to enable members to work
together as a team throughout the year's highly
interactive series of seminars.

	In the next months, they will examine issues related
to economic development, social services as well as
health care, education, criminal justice, racism,
politics and power, etc.  They will not only
experience strategic planning, policy analysis and
problem-solving in various aspects, but they will work
together to form an informed network of dedicated
leaders who will actively work to challenge the future
of our region.