Hard Times Make Great Leaders

With Karnea and the summer behind us, we now turn our full attention to the fall. What a fall it will be. We enter with many unknowns. What will the average college campus look like this fall? How will Fraternity chapters function? Is this a temporary or permanent change to the way our organization operates? For sure, it will be a time of challenge.

I am not naïve. I know it will be just as difficult at the local level as it will be at the national level. Yet we are all committed to preserving our Fraternity and as such, we are prepared to exhibit leadership on a scale rarely seen in our organization. Hard times make great leaders. Each and every one of us has an opportunity to leave our legacy by our actions this fall. Posterity will judge us by our ability to overcome. And overcome, we will.

This fall, we must focus on four fundamental strategies to survive and thrive:

• Communication – We must communicate with our members. We must communicate between chapters. We must communicate between the local and the national leadership. To understand what everyone is facing we must communicate openly and candidly.
• Collaboration – Some chapters will find solutions that work. We must share to help each other. We will also make mistakes. We must be honest in our assessments of what is working and what is not. We must work together, as brothers.
• Support – Our chapter presidents will have the most difficult job of all. They must balance uncertainty with outside demands and internal needs. They must play the role of cheerleader and critic. They must be an idealist and a realist. All our attention should go toward supporting our chapter leadership, specifically our presidents.
• Optimism – Whether we think we will succeed or fail this fall, we are correct. Attitude is one of the few things we can control this fall, so control it we must. We must look toward the future with hope and ambition. This is not a time to recoil in hopelessness. We must engage with optimism that comes like the summer sun of youth casting its glow upon each of our campuses.

The national Fraternity was originally created to support the chapters and their local operations. That original charge descends to us and to me your CEO. I am proud of the work done so far and the work to be done. Please check our resource page at www.delts.org/covid-19 regularly for resources and advice. Be in regular contact with your volunteer advisors and Central Office staff. We all have the opportunity to be great if we choose to accept the call.

I look forward to seeing each and every one of you this spring, next summer or whenever we are able to gather once again. Despite the uncertainty and the clouds on the immediate horizon, I still believe it is a great day to be a Delt.  

Fraternally,

Jack Kreman, Chief Executive Officer