Building a Bridge to Leadership

BY DEAN ROBERT JOSS

August, 2003

Leadership is like swimming. It's a capability you develop over time, through hard work and practice. It's something you learn mostly by doing; not something you perfect in a classroom. We expect that all of our graduates will need to develop leadership abilities in one form or another, as leadership is required in virtually every position and at all levels of an organization. We don't expect our students to learn everything about leadership in the classroom. That would be like thinking someone could listen to a lecture on swimming and expect to be a good swimmer instantly. You might understand intellectually why you won't sink and how kicking and arm strokes propel a body through water, all of which is important in building confidence, but it won't make you a proficient swimmer. You can hope that, with knowledge about the theory of water mechanics under your belt, you get a good coach to give you advice from the pool deck as you refine your technique through hours of practice.

Guidance and coaching—along with the solid theory, cases, and frameworks that are the logical centerpiece of the GSB curriculum—are precisely what we will try to provide through the leadership initiative we will pilot this coming academic year. Roughly 60 student volunteers will be involved in the pilot program. In addition to taking courses and developing strong analytic skills common to all their classmates, these students will participate in learning labs that will engage them in experiences essential to leadership learning. These experiences will be aimed at helping students develop greater self-insight and, more important, practicing and improving behaviors critical to their personal and professional development.

How Will This Pilot Program Work?

In my last column (May '03), I talked about the role of experiential learning, which will be an important part of the pilot. We have sound ideas about how students can strengthen behaviors critical to effective leadership. We believe students can improve their leadership capabilities through an integrated learning approach that combines and coordinates coursework, experimentation, feedback, and reflection. Together these four components will produce an experience through which students internalize leadership learning.

Coursework: We already offer 12 courses that touch on leadership, but over the next year some of our faculty will explore the design of a conceptual course treatment of the subject that includes strategies, behaviors, and contextual factors of effective leadership.

Co-Curricular Experimentation: The pilot group will form into Bridge Teams, so named to symbolize the critical leadership challenge of bridging the gap between knowing and doing, as articulated by our faculty colleagues Jeff Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior, and Bob Sutton, professor of management science and engineering in the School of Engineering. These six-person groups will work together on study-group assignments and on a first-year capstone project. The teams are a natural vehicle for working on teamwork and interpersonal skills.

Individual Assessment and Feedback: Bridge Labs will build self-insight and help students to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to develop their own leadership perspective. The pilot will involve several of these required co-curricular workshops to provide feedback and support for efforts at applying leadership concepts in actual practice.

Structured Reflection: The labs and optional Bridge Events will provide students with opportunities to explore and reflect on leadership in the context of their own lives and personal experiences. Bridge events will occur quarterly and will use a variety of learning formats such as film, simulations, workshops, and retreats.

Through this pilot program, and faculty research that will support it, we will learn a great deal about how to implement a leadership learning experience for the entire MBA class in subsequent years. The GSB is well positioned to advance both the "art and practice" as well as the "science" of leadership. It is a noble goal—one that is right for our School in today's environment. I will keep you posted on our progress in this important undertaking.

From the Editor

Dean's Column