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As part of the University's commitment to providing resources to enhance the educational experience, all University of Chicago students have complimentary access to LinkedIn Learning. This platform offers a vast array of online courses and tutorials across various subjects, allowing students to develop new skills and augment their academic pursuits.
LinkedIn Learning is a leading online learning company that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. Staff at the Center for Leadership and Involvement have selected some courses that we recommend to students looking to further develop their leadership skills.
You also have the opportunity to connect your Learning page with your LinkedIn profile and showcase any badges you have received. Click here to learn more about how to link your personal LinkedIn page with your LinkedIn Learning page.
Self-Awareness and Skill Development
Self-Awareness: An accurate awareness of personal identity is important for leadership development in that students must be able to act with authenticity yet discern how others will interact and respond differently to them based on their unique identities (Eagly & Chin, 2010; Fassinger, Shullman, & Stevenson, 2010; Ospina & Foldy, 2009; Sanchez-Hucles & Davis, 2010).
Professional Skill Awareness and Development: The college environment is flush with opportunities for students to develop various professional and personal skills under the guidance of experienced educators and mentors. Such skill development is often considered a foundational component of leadership education, necessary for any student to enact leadership (HERI, 1996; Komives, Wagner, & Associates, 2009).
Working with Others
Multicultural Competence: Due to different cultures, background experiences, and identities, people inevitably view the world and, therefore, act in various and contrasting ways (HERI, 1996, Komives et al., 2009). With employers calling for colleges and universities to emphasize teamwork skills in diverse groups (AAC&U, 2008), students need to empathetically and cognitively understand varying perspectives in order to effectively work with others in a culturally pluralistic society (Zaccaro, Gilbert, Thor, & Mumford, 1991).
Civil Discourse: President Randel expressed the need for respect, trust, and personal responsibility in the endeavor to maintain a forum for free speech rather than suppressing dissent (Provost, 2002). In this vein, when groups are able to respectfully discourse about difference, thoughtful consideration of this dialogue can result in innovative and creative solutions (HERI, 1996; Komives et al., 2009).
Team Dynamics: Teams are complex entities with varying structures, life cycles, ways of sharing information, and processes for decision-making (Brown, 2000; Hogg & Tindale, 2001). Additionally, knowing that individuals within a team must have the efficacy and motivation to work for the betterment of the group, positive interpersonal relationships and sensitivity to morale are imperative. To effectively guide groups and organizations in successful performance, students must understand and enact these overarching concepts related to group behavior.
Adaptability
Positive Change: Management and leadership are often confounded concepts. Whereas management focuses on control and maintenance of the status quo, leadership is predicated upon change (Northouse, 2013). Heifetz (2010) further outlines this distinction differentiating between technical and adaptive solutions, the latter of which is considered leadership. In leadership, students must be open to and allow space for external threats, internal conflict, norm-challenging, and reasonable disorientation, many of which are antithetical to management (Heifetz, 2010). Also inherent to the concept of intentional change are positive/ beneficial outcomes. Therefore, a strong sense of inquiry and critical dialogue are necessary to discern the change to which leadership is directed.
Resiliency: As people engage in adaptive solutions to complex problems, they will inevitably encounter significant stressors, various forms of adversity, and uncertainty (Heifetz, 2010). To persist in such conditions, students must develop a healthy sense of resiliency to positively cope with stressors, effectively overcome obstacles, and maintain hope when navigating uncharted territory.
Governance and Organizational Structures
Power and Authority: Power and authority play important and distinct roles in leadership (Vecchio 2007; Bolman & Deal 2008). Whether working in community or organizational contexts, understanding these concepts can help students more efficiently and successfully navigate change.
Context and Culture: Kuh and Whitt (1988) define culture as “persistent patterns of norms, values, practices, beliefs, and assumptions that shape the behavior of individuals and groups in a college or university and provide a frame of reference within which to interpret the meaning of events and actions on and off campus” (p. iv). Understanding that organizations are structured differently, operate in unique ways, and maintain institution specific traditions and unspoken rules that influence organizational performance, students must learn to assess these different environments and understand how to effectively manage resources in varying contexts.
Innovation and Creativity
Reframing Issues and Resources: Addressing complex issue with status quo solutions is problematic (Heifetz, 2010). It is only when people creatively reframe issues from different vantage points that deeply-rooted assumptions can be challenged and new, multifaceted solutions can be developed.
The Uncommon Ethic: A hallmark ethic of the University of Chicago, entrepreneurial ideas play an integral role in inquiry, discourse, and leadership. People must strive toward a vibrant vision of the future, share that vision with others, bring together communities to invest in that vision, and collaboratively build a roadmap of creative solutions to accomplish that vision (Kouzes & Posner, 2007).