DeAnte' Smith strives to be open, communicative leader

DeAnte' Smith was appointed as the director of Greek Life at Southeast Missouri State University in 2013. He had a background in advising Greek chapters, but overseeing 20 asks no shortage of authority within his position. He works with all three governing councils: the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Council and National Pan-Hellenic Council. But he said even with a booked schedule, he keeps a 24/7 open-door policy. It sets an example for the students who look up to him every day. He wants them to know leadership happens inside and outside the workplace. Leadership isn't a 9-to-5 job.

How did you get to this point in your career as the director of Greek Life at Southeast?

Originally, I would like to say, I think my career started from the graduate assistant. I was fortunate enough to receive a graduate assistantship in Greek Life at the University of Southern Mississippi. At the time, there was a vacant spot in the Panhellenic sorority community as well as the graduate assistant of Greek Life is always overseeing the NPHC community because at that particular time it was never a full-time staff person for that. I had the NPHC, which are historically African-American Greek letter organizations, and also I helped advise the Panhellenic community.

The director of Greek Life was over IFC, so he and I were there for around six to seven months, just the two of us. So that got me more experience than what a normal graduate assistant would probably get. That catapulted me from going from a graduate assistant to when I graduated, I went from graduate assistant to assistant director of student engagement for Greek affairs at the University of North Alabama. From there, I've been educating students on leadership skills as it pertains to Greek Life as well as [how] it just pertains to any campus community. I think, to me, that's where my experience started from that graduate assistant opportunity, but because of vacancies in staff, I got a lot more experience than a typical graduate student would get and, with that experience, a lot more responsibility.

What do your day-to-day responsibilities include as director?

I have to deal with the day-to-day interactions of the Greek community. Some of that is, of course, meeting weekly with the executive officers, weekly with their delegates and, for the most part, I meet pretty consistently with the presidents as well. As well as always preparing and educating myself as well as gaining more knowledge about what's going on in other campus communities that's impacting Greek Life, so I can share it with them so we can be proactive in educating our students based on some things that we're hearing around the nation, be very proactive in educating our students on the general risk-management policies that pertain to the university as well as helping them meet their own expectations as new presidents or new council executive officers in their positions and where they would like to see Greek Life go while they're still here. That's just some of the day-to-day interactions that I also have. A lot of alumni connections that I have to be like a liaison between the university Greek life and alumni as well as just the Office of Greek Life and the other departments that are not Greek, so that liaison to make sure we're all connected.

Why is strong leadership important on a college campus?

For me, strong leadership is definitely important because college is the opportunity for people to develop their leadership skills or develop themselves that's going to carry them on post graduation to their careers as well.

Having a strong leadership gets you prepared for what to expect once you graduate from college. I hear people say to it, "Once you get into the real world, ..." but even in college they're living in the real world. But it definitely prepares you for after college if you have some of those leaderships skills. So having strong leadership skills is going to set the tone for the rest of your life and can be very beneficial to you moving up the career path in whatever field you choose to do. Definitely strong leadership skills play an impact in that particular area.

What's the most difficult challenge you've faced as a leader?

The greatest challenge so far that was a challenge but in a positive direction was that, at my previous institution, I worked with a sorority that they had all the potential in the world but they just [lacked] confidence in themselves, so it was very challenging for me to get through to them for them to start believing in themselves and they had all the resources available for them to achieve all of their goals.

Their goal at that particular time was just to become a larger organization. So they already knew that they had leadership within their organization, but they just wanted to be large enough so they can be competitive with the other Greek organizations that we had based on membership. So I worked with them for approximately two years before they achieved their goal. They went from about an organization of around 15 women to an organization of around 85 women in a two-year span. The ultimate goal was 90, and so they got to about 85 before I left that particular institution. It was definitely very beneficial to see them actually achieve their goal. With that, once they achieved their goal, they didn't even know what to do with all the women they currently have. When they had 15 women, they were used to having multiple positions or used to having multiple responsibilities, so once they got all the women that they wanted, they didn't even know how to basically give out some of those responsibilities, so it was very exciting to see that they were so excited and now they have to have all these responsibilities, but now they have to learn how to divvy out some of the responsibilities to other people.

How do you show leadership to the surrounding up-and-coming leaders that you're working with in Greek Life?

I try to model leadership, just for my own area, so I try to basically model the leadership I would expect from them. Some of the ways I try to model leadership is that being basically a role model for them, so the image that they see.

With the Greek retreat I talk with them, with the new incoming presidents as well as the new exec boards, about what they can expect in their position, tell them a lot about the challenges that come along with their positions that we've seen for them to be prepared. Of course, we'll talk about things going on on different campuses that can impact our campus, even though we're not involved with those issues in any way, just things that can be attached to the Greek Life name in itself. So with that, I always tell them Greek life is a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week lifestyle or a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week leadership style. You were nominated or you ran for these positions, you weren't volunteered for these positions, so now that you're in these positions you're expected to uphold the standards. Just like me, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter what, I have to respond to any issue. So they're going to see the same thing from their end, so you can't take a day, unfortunately, but this is, again, this is what you signed up for; you wanted to set a higher standard, and here are our expectations. So I try to model that for myself and they all have my contact information, so they can give me a call at anytime, weekend. So I expect the same from them as well.

Who inspires your actions as a leader?

My mentor is my mom. She's always inspired me ever since I was a child and always telling me never to expect handouts, never to expect a pat on the back. Even as a child, if I received a high grade and other children, my classmates, were getting money or other incentives for making high grades, I received absolutely nothing. Her model was, "I'm not going to pay you to do what's expected of you." In any position I've had, I've done everything that I think is expected of me, and I try to go above and beyond in those situations. So I never expect anyone to come and tell me, "Thank you for doing a good job." I'm just doing exactly what I said I would do when I interviewed for the position.