Determing How Best to Develop Leaders

At Ryerson we are conducting a review of our student leadership development program and to help us understand our options we have been doing some reading and looking at programs offered at other schools.

One of the books we have read that has been quite helpful is Deeper Learning in Leadership by Dennis C. Roberts. The author provides some history on leadership development programs, gives an overview of some of the common approaches used at (US) schools and presents his thoughts on components of a good program.

As for programs being offered, I have found the University of Calgary Leadership (UCL) program the most intriguing. The UofC program is broken into three areas: personal leadership, team leadership and community leadership. The breakdown resonates with me because it provides a holistic view built on a foundation of student's developing self-awareness and moves them towards making contributions to their community beyond school. You should check out the link above to find out more.

Here are a few observations I've made as we have gone though this review for you to comment on:

• Roberts mentions that no one model on leadership development has been found to dominate and our review reinforces this position. No two schools have the same program. This is exciting because it provides for a lot of flexibility in designing a program, but it is a little overwhelming too because its hard to know which approach will yield the best results.
  
• There is a tonne of information on leadership and no two people have the same opinion on leadership and how best to develop the skills associated with it. Our approach has been to reach out to a fair number of people - students, staff, faculty & people/groups outside our school - to increase "buy-in" and explore ways we collaborate. We have some emerging partnerships developing with the Lion's Club and with the Canadian Centre for Diversity that could provide some powerful outcomes for our students.
  
• Those of us in student affairs at Ryerson have talked a fair amount over the past few years about ways we can collaborate to support and educate existing leaders, but we have yet to find a strategy that will work. For instance, the staff working in student affairs units collectively hire a few hundred student staff and leaders and each unit provides training and support for those directly under their responsibility; however, the different hiring timelines, topics covered in training and job requirements have prevented us from finding a comprehensive solution that is sustainable beyond isolated activities.