Housley Principled Leadership Program
Tomorrow is the first day of the fall semester at Texas State and my fourteenth year of teaching the Housley Principled Leadership Program on campus through the Stelos Alliance. I can’t wait to meet my new students and begin what will hopefully be a lifelong relationship where I have the privilege of watching them grow up and achieve great things personally and professionally.
The course is taught as a memorial to my good friend and fellow Bobcat, Kevin Housley, who inspired me with his example as a civic leader, businessman, family man, and ride-or-die friend. Walking to class each Monday night, I think about him and pray that I am doing justice to his memory.
The course is roughly divided into thirds. The first part of the semester is all about self-awareness. We explore our background influences and challenge the beliefs, values, identities, and cultural forces that go into the gumbo pot and form our unique personas. By the end of the first month, we draft a personal mission statement that we enhance and expand upon during the semester.
The meat of the course provides the tools, frameworks, and practices that enable successful people to do the work of leading people and organizations. This is the nuts-and-bolts stuff of leadership. These lessons are broadly applicable to every dimension of life and are designed to improve our ability to navigate day-to-day relationships as well as lead large organizations. Students are encouraged to apply these tools and lessons in their lives and report back each week.
The real fun comes in the last few weeks of the semester when we take all that we have learned and ask the big question: “What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?” This is a “no subject is off limits” part of the course where we talk about professional ambition, love, money, family, service, fitness, fulfillment, congruence, and the pursuit of happiness. In the end, we update our personal mission statements and commit to becoming leaders of consequence.
I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.
