MCLP Founder, Phani Aytam, and Executive Director, Sonya Mau, led a workshop about the Multicultural Leadership Program (MCLP) at the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership 23rd International Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 14. Thirty people attended their workshop entitled “Leveraging Servant Leadership to Develop Diverse Leaders to Build Stronger Communities.” In their session, Aytam and Mau shared about the MCLP vision—explaining how that vision required three years of building a strong foundation of support throughout the community, long before the first MCLP class began. With MCLP now beginning its 5th year, there was much to share at the workshop about what worked, what did not, and what lessons were learned.
Aytam and Mau had three objectives. They wanted attendees to leave the workshop understanding:
- Ways to leverage servant leadership to build stronger communities
- How diversity and servant leadership can help lay the foundation for a well-rounded and inclusive community, served by passionate servant leaders
- How to inspire self and others to develop a diverse servant leadership program for their own communities.
Exercises taken directly from the MCLP curriculum were sprinkled liberally throughout the three-hour session. Attendees were actively engaged, much like MCLP class participants—asking questions, participating in exercises, and sharing insights.
Conference evaluations rated this workshop very high. Many participants stayed after the session to learn more. Some asked if MCLP could help start a similar leadership program in their own communities.
“This was the best, most informative session I attended at the conference. The presenters were knowledgeable and generous in sharing their experience. They offered concrete strategies for implementing their ideas in our own program/projects. I appreciated their ability to answer questions. Sonya and Phani worked well together and modeled effective collaboration.”
–Participant feedback from Sonya and Phani’s workshop
Read Sonya’s Blog featuring more highlights from the conference.