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Competencies

The Leadership Studies Program focuses on developing students' leadership skills in seven distinct areas:

• Catalytic—Identifying, analyzing, and judging complex collective challenges and opportunities, and mobilizing others to remain focused on addressing them.
• Contextual—Knowing the cultural, historical, institutional, intellectual and policy context in which one operates.
• Interpersonal—Modulating one’s behavior in order to interact effectively in a variety of settings.
• Theory Understanding the fundamental leadership concepts, constructs and research findings.
• Organizational—Planning, organizing, coordinating and executing collective action.
• Personal—Being self-aware; that is, able to reflect on one’s thinking, feeling, and behavior and knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, predilections, dominant tendencies and values.
• Social Systems—Analyzing dynamic social and political systems.

Adapted from: Pittinsky, T.L. (2006) “How to Develop Public Leaders.” Kennedy School Bulletin, summer 2006, p. 13.

Objectives

The objectives of the Leadership Studies Program is to:

• Develop students’ leadership capacity—which encompasses individual-level capabilities of self-awareness, integrity and commitment; group-level capabilities of collaboration, shared purpose and handling controversy with civility; and community-level capabilities of citizenship and civic responsibility.
• Provide opportunities for students to study leadership by learning effective communication practices, organizational theories, ethical principles, an appreciation of diversity, intrapersonal development and the value of community service.
• Cultivate students’ understanding of social empowerment and social justice to create positive and sustainable change.
• Challenge students to critically examine leadership at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, team, organization and society levels.
• Bring students into contact with community leaders and faculty members from diverse academic departments, backgrounds and leadership experiences.
• Prepare students to undertake leadership roles in their careers and in service to their community through coursework and co-curricular engagement.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the minor or certificate in leadership studies, students will:

• Recognize leadership as a set of skills, knowledge and attitudes that can be learned.
• Understand traditional and emergent leadership theories and apply them in practice.
• Comprehend key concepts of communication theories, organizational theories, contemporary diversity issues and ethical principles.
• Practice and evaluate their own capacity to lead effectively within teams, organizations and diverse communities.
• Develop and implement plans for continually improving their leadership capacity.
• Demonstrate proficiencies in written and oral communication.