Leadership can be summed up in the simple phrase of “tag—you’re it,” Bill Holsinger-Robinson said Wednesday at the Grand Valley State University Hauenstein Center’s first Wheelhouse Talk of the year.
“When you’re tagged, it’s not even just that formal action that takes place,” said Holsinger-Robinson, founding executive director of Art Prize and chair of the Frederick Meijer Honors College at GVSU. “When you’re tagged, you can decide whether you want to play the game or not… You can be tagged with a challenge or a responsibility, but ultimately you are responsible to take an action.”

With Colonel Ralph Hauenstein, namesake of the center, in attendance, the speaker addressed a full auditorium at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts about how to be the best possible leader.
Holsinger-Robinson offered five lessons on leadership: know oneself; have a vision; trust good people; be open to change, to be wrong and to fail; and strive for balance in everything done. The speaker closed the Wheelhouse Talk with a call to look at how the leaders of West Michigan can overcome a trend of risk-aversion in the region to build the entrepreneurial community, as well as a brief challenge: “tag—you’re it.”

The Wheelhouse Talks will continue throughout the year with five more speakers, including Dean Fred Antczak of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Hauenstein Center will host Yang Kim, an executive at Peopledesign, to speak at the next Wheelhouse Talk Oct. 10 at the UICA.

For more information about the talks and other events hosted by the center, visit the website at www.hauensteincenter.org.
[email protected]