Becoming More Intentionally Focused on Leader Development: A University’s First Steps

Presentation to Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education (CJBE) July 17, 2009 Robert Vigliotti, Ph.D. and Emmett E. Perry, Ph.D., Rockhurst University

Mission and Vision

Our Mission

 Rockhurst University exists to:     Transform lives Create a learning community centered on excellence Engage with the life and growth of the city and the region Serve the contemporary world  Captured succinctly by our motto:  Learning, Leadership, and Service in the Jesuit Tradition

Mission and Vision

Our Vision

Rockhurst University will be nationally recognized for transforming lives and forming leaders in the Jesuit tradition. Inspired by the example of St. Ignatius of Loyola, this Catholic university community seeks to make God’s good world better through learning, leadership, service, and the pursuit of justice.

Opportunities and Insights  Opportunity:  To take stock of what we’re doing in leader development  Insights :   Several good programs already in place to encourage leader development among students Could and should be doing more for our students’ development

Opportunities and Insights  Opportunity:  To grow our leader development program  Insights:  Promote development in all students    Not just those already motivated to participate in leadership programs Involves the whole Rockhurst community Goes beyond curricular to more co-curricular components

Opportunities and Insights  Opportunity:  Integrate leader development into the whole educational process  Insights:  Create a culture of leadership   Include faculty and staff in the lifelong process Help each person understand leadership as it relates to his or her individual gifts

Opportunities and Insights  Opportunity:  To be more deliberate and systematic about how to promote leader development  Insights:  Need a solid conceptual foundation that can:   Integrate existing leader development programs Guide the formation of new, wider, and more comprehensive programs

Our Challenge To arrive at a succinct account of leadership in the Jesuit tradition that will serve as the foundation of an integrated and university-wide effort to foster leader development for all members of the Rockhurst community whatever their roles may be.

Foundational Beliefs These beliefs:  Flow naturally from Catholic and specifically Ignatian beliefs, values, and spirituality  Expressed in central Jesuit concepts such as magis and cura personalis, and others  Expressed, more importantly, in the act of leading

Foundational Beliefs Include:  The Nature of the World  Created and guided by God's will  Good in itself despite the very evident flaws as it is now  Recognized as a gift of great beauty and majesty  The Value of Each Human Being  Created in the image of God  Has inherent worth and dignity  Has unrealized potential for goodness

Foundational Beliefs Include:  Our Role in Life   To play our particular role in God's purposes  To embrace the world as we find it  To commit ourselves to making it better and to transforming ourselves to better achieve that goal  To begin our servant leadership from where we stand right now Learning and service are essentially intertwined with leading   Directed toward knowledge of God's will revealed in creation Make us more effective instruments of service

Foundational Beliefs Include:  Everyone leads    We all face circumstances demanding leadership Not a function of positional role Leading has many forms  Transform others to be leaders themselves  Fr. Kolvenbach’s term “multiplying agents”  Highly participatory with community

Another Challenge  Diverse Communities  Beliefs not shared by all members of our community  Express in a way that engages and motivates all members

Definition of Leadership

Leadership is an overflow of inner spirit that inspires and influences others to join together to achieve worthy purposes.

Personal and Moral Characteristics   

Ad Majorem Dei Gloria

 Being guided by a higher purpose “for the greater glory of God”

Imago Dei

 Recognizing as an image of God of the value and intrinsic worth and value of every person

Cura personalis

  Showing in action a profound respect for the dignity of others Helping others to reach their fullest potential

Personal and Moral Characteristics 

Magis

 Being called always to give more of ourselves  Courage   Standing by one’s core moral values despite difficulties and temptations Embracing change when it helps serve others more efficaciously  Self-awareness  Having an honest and accurate self-understanding of their own capacities and weaknesses

Learning Objectives      Understand your uniqueness. Develop your capabilities, your values, and your worldview; Develop life-long skill in self-examination focused on aligning actions with core values and personal goals; Motivate yourself and others to recognize and pursue worthy aims; Confidently innovate and adapt to lead with integrity in a changing world; and Through service to others, learn to engage others with a positive, loving attitude.

Adapted from Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership, 294-295 .

Model for Leader Development Experience Evaluation Action Reflection Recording Context Adapted from: Ignation Pedagogy, Society of Jesus website: http://www.sjweb.info/education/doclist.cfm