When I started my term as chapter president, I remember the pressure I felt to live up to my chapter’s unspoken expectations of me that I had projected on myself through their electing me into the role. My assumed criteria of how they would define a successful term rattled in my head as I considered change or hard decisions. I remember the first time I responded confidently back to a rude comment in front of the entire chapter. I could see their synchronized shock in their wide eyes and open mouths in response to my assertiveness. It’s like I was watching their image of me change in front of my eyes. It’s not that I hadn’t been confident in my prior role – I just hadn’t carried the responsibility of making unpopular calls or been so directly challenged by my friends.
I remember feeling pulled in two opposite directions – to either overexplain myself and my decision-making or withhold all the details of how decisions would be made to demonstrate the strength of leadership in decisiveness.
Now being out of the collegiate experience for several years, I know that these extremes of transparency with the chapter and confidentiality of information both have a place in sorority leadership. But I also know that these two options seem less extreme when balanced with one another. Effective leadership does not require pouring your heart out to feel understood or withdrawing to prevent looking weak – effective leadership in your community looks like walking the line of honest, confident leadership to cultivate trust with the chapter.
Transparency
Transparency is an invaluable element of a strong leader. Leaders build trust with the chapter or community by leveling with them and that’s probably what many of them voiced they were looking for when electing new officers. We all value the truth and hearing it, even if it’s hard, will increase respect. We have to be careful though to not use transparency as a means of manipulating members or bargaining tool to increase understanding of our hard decisions for selfish reasons. Here are a few examples to consider in implementing transparency in your leadership in healthy, honest ways:
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GOALS: Your chapter or community deserves to know the vision you have for their chapter or community. As an executive board, you don’t only owe them this information but you cannot accomplish any of the goals you set for your organization without their buy-in! They will play an integral role in helping move the chapter forward so inspire them with the thoughtful vision you have crafted for the growth of this organization they get to be a part of.
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CONFERENCE TAKEAWAYS: Going to a leadership institute hosted by your national organization or conference for officers like you? So often I talk to leaders at these types of events who tell me “Every single member of my chapter / community needed to hear that.” Well, since they couldn’t be at the conference, you get to be the bridge! Take this information back to them! Put together a presentation of all your most impactful takeaways from each session or breakout for them to have that knowledge for their chapter experience or professional development.
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HEADQUARTERS UPDATES: Your members are as deserving of their national organization’s updates or information as you are! So while you are responsible to stay on top of this information for your position, also know what is going on to be forthcoming with your members about changes to their organization. Being the bridge to their national organization will inspire long term membership + alumnae involvement and cultivate a strong leadership culture in your chapter.
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FEEDBACK: Make yourself open to feedback from your members! If you hear recurring feedback about certain things, bring it up in chapter to ensure your members feel heard. Even if it is a complaint about something you do not have control over, communicating that members voices matter and are empathized with will create trust.
Confidentiality
After reading about the value & necessity of transparency, it’s hard to imagine that another leadership communication style could have any beneficial role to play. But it does. Equally as important as transparency, at the appropriate times, confidentiality is essential to build trust with the chapter, protect members, and elevate your leadership. Here’s a short non-negotiable list of ways to implement confidentiality.
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MEMBER SENSITIVE INFORMATION: Some hard decisions get made as a result of personal circumstances, behavior, and experiences of members. It’s important to withhold sensitive information about members that would violate their privacy, even if it would provide helpful context for conflict in the chapter, hard decisions made by officers, or membership status changes. Letting members be the ones to share their stories with trusted sisters on their own timing creates safety within the chapter, not only for the member who’s going through something now, but for members to know that if they were ever in their position, their situation would be respected and protected, too.
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INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT ON YOUR BOARD: It is normal for your executive board, governing council, or leadership team to disagree! There will often be differences of opinion and challenging discrepancies between one another’s preferred approach in different situations during your term. But any animosity, frustration, or interpersonal conflict between officers has to STAY in your officer meetings. Airing your disagreements with or mistakes made by another officer does not cultivate a unified front of an executive board. As justified as you may be in your frustration, find appropriate people to process it with (advisors, other trusted officers, and external friends) and choose to support their decisions and advocate for their leadership to be trusted publicly in the chapter. You would want the same from them. Nothing tears a chapter down faster than a leadership team who turns on each other.
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INCOMPLETE DECISIONS: The pressure of sorority leadership can make it really challenging to make final decisions. While there is an appropriate place to ask for feedback and be sensitive to member preferences, controversial decisions that may have external pressure to fulfill or will leave one group unhappy require a great deal of care in communication. Sharing half baked ideas about how to solve challenging situations or how a pressing issue will be addressed requires clear, thoughtful plans. Refrain from externally processing these kinds of decision outcomes with friends in the chapter to prevent rumors spreading that will require more resolving later.
As you start your officer term, you might be feeling a lot of pressure to create a leadership style entirely reflecting one of these two approaches. But I hope that at this point, you feel convinced of the necessity of both. You need BOTH transparency and confidentiality to cultivate trust, member buy in, create healthy boundaries with members, and sustain friendships.
