The Common Language of Leadership

Abstract

As our complex society continues to call for leadership across all career fields, preparing leaders at the college level can be challenging. This article outlines the results of a comprehensive examination of learning outcomes of 475 academic programs within 72 academic accrediting organizations in regard to student leadership development. The purpose of the current study was twofold: (a) to understand better what competencies college students need to develop in order to engage in leadership in their respective career fields and (b) to use research findings to develop a list of leadership competencies across academic disciplines, serving as a “common language” for use in program planning, course development, as well as individual student advising and mentoring. The Student Leadership Competencies have been translated to contemporary leadership models such as the Relational Leadership Model, the Social Change Model of Leadership Development, the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, Emotionally Intelligent Leadership, and the CAS Standards. Implications for the use of the Student Leadership Competencies in program development, program assessment, and the development of strategic partnerships are also discussed.

Considerations for Collective Thinking About Academic Leadership Programs

“…The social sciences and humanities have explored the theoretical nature of leadership, and applications of natural sciences have been used to study leadership, all informing the foundational knowledge of leadership and its programs (Harvey & Riggio, ). Applied disciplines, such as business, education, agriculture, and engineering, have developed specialisms and interest in the practice and application of theoretical leadership knowledge (Seemiller & Murray, ). From a knowledge, or academic, perspective, leadership is multidisciplinary and this is reflected in the diversity of programs and their locations that have emerged across institutions of higher education.…”

Big Questions for Leadership Education

“…Given the great degree of variance in formal leadership programs (Brungardt, Greenleaf, Brungardt, & Arensdorf, ; Jenkins & Owen, ; Seemiller & Murray, ), a fundamental question arises for all leadership educators, scholars, and practitioners: What does it mean for our discipline or field of study if we do not all agree about the basic nature of the field? Given the great variety of different leadership programs that are all teaching under a similar name, but in many cases are teaching toward very different outcomes, how do we most effectively capture the diversity of the field while addressing issues of validity, credibility, and disciplinary development?…”

Surveying Industry Needs for Leadership in Entry-level Engineering Positions

“…A review of literature revealed a long history of many approaches to categorization of leadership competencies. 10,15,16,23,25,28,29,32 After review of the prior research and the results of the in-depth interviews in phase one, Seemiller's taxonomy 28,29 was selected as the best fit to discuss.…”

“…28,29 During the question writing phase, it was realized that responses relating to Seemiller's "values" would not be useful due to limitations presented by these types of questions. It was noted that industry personnel might be presented with challenges when asked to respond about the beliefs of others.…”

“…6,7,11,21,26,34 Others have focused on identifying leadership competencies. 20,28,29 While there is a clear effort to study and elevate the importance of leadership development, as well as infuse leadership instruction and activities into undergraduate engineering programs, Seemiller and Murray 29 revealed that engineering programs contained the fewest "Student Leadership Competencies" of the 18 categories of academic programs they reviewed.…”