A Vision for Leadership Development in Higher Education

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A Vision for Leadership Development in Higher
Education

• Bob Sternberg
• Provost and Senior Vice President
• OSU

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Main Point

• The mission of college and university education
  should be to develop future active citizens and
  leadersgraduates who will make a positive,
  meaningful, and enduring difference to the world
• They will do so by thinking creatively,
  analytically, practically, and wisely, and by
  acting ethically
• And by being passionate, compassionate, and
  caring citizens of the state, nation, and world

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Corollary

• A college or university truly will excel not by
  competing with other institutions of higher
  learning or by comparing itself to such
  institutions
• Rather, it will excel by competing with itselfby
  being true to its own ideals

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WICS View of Leadership

• Wisdom
• Intelligence
• Creativity
• Synthesized

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The (WICS) Core of Ethical Leadership

• Leaders decide for leadership
• Leaders are
• Creative in generating a new vision
• Analytical in ascertaining the value of the
  vision
• Practical in implementing the vision and
  persuading others of its value
• Wise in ensuring that the vision helps attain a
  common good, over the long- and short-terms,
  through the infusion of positive ethical values
  in their actions

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Creative Skills
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Why Creative Skills Are Important

• Creative skills are important because, in a
  rapidly changing world, those who are unable to
  cope with novelty and with continually changing
  economic, social, political, and other conditions
  are left behind
• Much of what we learn in school quickly becomes
  outdated. We need to prepare for the future
  world, not just the current one

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What Does It Mean to Think Creatively?

• Generate ideas that are
• Novel
• Good
• Appropriate to the task at hand
• To
• Create
• Design
• Invent
• Imagine
• Suppose

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What Is the Essence of Thinking Creatively?

• Decision to
• Defy the crowd
• Buy low and sell high in the world of ideas
• People all know they should buy low and sell
  high, but they dont
• There are challenges to buying low and selling
  high
• External Pressure
• Internal Pressure

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What Are Some Specific Decisions Creative People
Make?

• Redefine problems
• Sell ideas
• Recognize the limitations of knowledge
• Take sensible risks
• Overcome obstacles
• Find what they love to do

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Analytical Skills
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Why Analytical Skills are Important

• More and more, the information explosion makes it
  impossible to have all the information one needs
  stored in ones head rather, one needs to be
  able to locate, retrieve, and evaluate
  information
• Students need to learn especially to think
  critically about information they acquire through
  various media, including TV, Internet, radio, etc.

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What Does It Mean to Think Analytically?

• Comprehend ideas and evaluate them
• To
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Critique
• Judge
• Compare and contrast

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What Is the Essence of Thinking Analytically?

• To reflect upon rather than merely accept what
  one hears
• Advertisements
• Political messages
• News reports
• Rumors

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Practical Skills
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Why Practical Skills Are Important

• Students can achieve an A in a course without
  being able to use that informatione.g., they
  could get an A in a foreign-language course but
  not be able to speak the language when abroad, or
  they could get an A in a statistics course but
  not be able to analyze their own data or that
  presented by others
• What is important is not inert knowledge, but
  rather, knowledge for use

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What Does It Mean to Think Practically?

• Transfer knowledge from the abstract-analytical
  domain to the practical domain
• To
• Use
• Implement
• Put into practice
• Apply
• Collaborate
• Persuade

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What Is the Essence of Thinking Practically?

• To apply ones academic knowledge in practical
  settings
• To acquire and utilize tacit knowledgewhat one
  needs to know that is not explicitly taught and
  often is not even verbalized

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Wisdom-Based Skills
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Why Wisdom-Based Skills Are Important

• Leaders rarely fail because they are lacking in
  knowledge or intelligence they typically fail
  for lack of wisdomthey are foolish
• Failed leaders tend to display signs of
• Unrealistic optimism
• Egocentrism
• False omniscience
• False omnipotence
• False invulnerability
• Ethical disengagement

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What Does It Mean to Think Wisely?

• To utilize ones knowledge and skills for a
  common good by balancing ones own, others, and
  higher order interests over the long- as well as
  the short-term through the infusion of positive
  ethical values
• To
• Seek a common good
• Understand others points of view
• Think over the long- as well as the short-term
• Think of the ethical implications of ones
  actions

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What Is the Essence of Thinking Wisely?

• Dialogical Thinkingunderstanding things from
  multiple points of view
• Dialectical Thinkingunderstanding that what is
  true or what works at one point in time may not
  be true or work at another point

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What Is the Basis of Ethical Action?

• To
• Recognize that a situation exists that is in need
  of attention
• Understand that it has an ethical dimension
• Realize that the ethical dimension is important
  enough to attend to
• Appreciate that the situation is personally
  relevant
• Identify ethical rule that applies to the
  situation
• Figure out how to apply the ethical rule to the
  situation
• Assess the possible costs and benefits of acting
  ethically
• --------------------------------------------------
  -------------------------
• Act ethically

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How Do We Develop the Leaders of Tomorrow?

• Three intervention points
• Admissions
• Instruction/Assessment (the visible curriculum)
• Student Life (the invisible curriculum)

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WICS Applied to Admissions
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Applying the WICS Model to Admissions

• If the goal of college admissions is to admit the
  active citizens and positive leaders of tomorrow,
  then use of ACT and High School GPA, either alone
  or in combination, is inadequate
• We should admit students based on potential broad
  value added, rather than narrow input value
• What kinds of measures could be used to
  supplement standardized tests and high school
  grades?

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Applying the WICS Model to Admissions

• The Rainbow Project
• The Kaleidoscope Project
• The Panorama Project

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Introductory Text

• ___ develops leaders who will address the
  intellectual and social challenges of the new
  century. Critical thinking, creativity,
  practicality, and wisdom are four elements of
  successful leadership. The following topics offer
  you an opportunity to illustrate these various
  characteristics. We invite you to choose one and
  to prepare an essay of 250 to 400 words. (And it
  really is optional!)

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Applying the WICS Model to Admissions Creative
Assessments

• Its 1781 and the American colonies have just
  been defeated by the British at Yorktown.
  Imagine history without the United States as we
  know it.
• Draw a design or advertisement for a new product
• Caption the cartoon below.
• Write a brief creative story with one of the
  following titles
• The End of MTV
• Confessions of a Middle-School Bully
• One-way Ticket

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Applying the WICS Model to Admissions
Analytical Assessments

• What book would you definitely include in your
  personal library? Why?
• Select a movie that captured your imagination.
  How did it capture your imagination or affect
  your thinking?
• If curiosity killed the cat, why do we
  celebrate people like Galileo, Lincoln, and
  Gandhi, who defied conventional thinking to
  achieve great results?

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Applying the WICS Model to Admissions
Practical Assessments

• How have you persuaded someone of an idea that
  the individual did not initially accept?
• How have you persevered in standing up for a
  belief when the odds were against you?
• How have you learned from a mistake you have made
  in your life? What was the mistake and what did
  you learn from it?
• Of what practical accomplishment in your life are
  you most proud? Why?

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Applying the WICS Model to Admissions
Wisdom-Based Assessments

• Describe one of your unsatisfied intellectual
  passions. How might you apply this interest to
  serve the common good and make a positive
  difference to society?
• Offer an open letter to the President of the
  United States. What issue would you like to see
  addressed in the next 100 days? What should he
  do, and why?

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Applying the WICS Model to Admissions
Empirical Data

• WICS assessments increase prediction of college
  GPA over SAT/ACT and HS GPA
• WICS assessments predict participation in
  extracurricular and leadership activities
• WICS assessments reduce ethnic-group differences
  in test performance
• WICS assessments increase satisfaction of
  applicants and their parents with the admissions
  process

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WICS Applied to Instruction/Assessment
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Applying the WICS Model to Instruction/Assessmen
t My Nature of Leadership Course

• Outside speakers Leaders in the community come
  in to talk about the challenges they have faced
  in the development of their own leadership
  (practical)
• Group project Requires creation of a
  presentation applying concepts to a real-life
  leader (group creative)
• Exams Require students to analyze, compare and
  contrast, evaluate concepts from the course
  (analytical)
• Reflection paper Requires students to analyze
  their own leadership, including its ethical
  dimension and how they can make it better
  (wisdom)

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Applying the WICS Model to Instruction/Assessmen
t My Nature of Leadership Course

• Creative
• Create a group presentation on the life and
  leadership of a leader of your choice
• Design a study to test the situational theory of
  leadership
• Imagine that Abraham Lincoln were president
  today How might he manage relations with todays
  Congress?
• Suppose that you were Governor of Oklahoma What
  would you do about underfunded state pensions?

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Applying the WICS Model to Instruction/Assessmen
t My Nature of Leadership Course

• Analytical
• Compare and contrast the leadership of Nelson
  Mandela and Robert Mugabe
• Analyze why Hosni Mubarek was forced to resign
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the
  trait theory of leadership
• Critique the class presentation of Group 1 on the
  leadership of Mahatma Gandhi

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Applying the WICS Model to Instruction/Assessmen
t My Nature of Leadership Course

• Practical
• Apply the contingency theory of leadership to a
  leadership challenge you have faced
• Use what you learned from President Hargiss
  presentation to the class to improve an aspect of
  your leadership
• Collaborate to produce a group presentation on a
  leader of your choice
• Persuade the class why Mike Holder should adopt
  your groups suggestion for improving student
  attendance at athletic events

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Applying the WICS Model to Instruction/Assessmen
t My Nature of Leadership Course

• Wisdom
• Does the Tea Party movement in the United States
  lead the country toward or away from the common
  good? Why?
• Why have Italians put up so long with the antics
  of Silvio Berlusconi? Do they have a different
  point of view from the way he is portrayed in the
  US media?
• What kinds of leadership practices may benefit an
  organization in the short- but not the long-term?
• Is democracy the only ethical form of government?

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Applying the WICS Model to Instruction/Assessmen
t

• Empirical Data
• Teaching in a way that enables students to
  capitalize on strengths and to correct or
  compensate for weaknesses improves their school
  achievement
• Teaching for WICS results in higher achievement
  across grade levels and subject-matter areas
• Teaching for WICS makes learning more enjoyable
  and engaging
• WICS teaching especially benefits those with
  diverse learning/thinking styles

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WICS Applied to Student Life
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Applying the WICS Model to Student Life

• Student-life experiences are not an add-on to
  the college experience they are an integral part
  of the college experience because they develop
  WICS leadership skills at least as much as do
  classroom experiences
• Much of the tacit knowledge one acquires in
  college is learned outside the classroom in
  informal-learning settings

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Student-Life Example of WICS Athletics

• Creative Devising novel a strategy to defeat the
  competition
• Analytical Ensuring that the strategy is a
  legal strategy and that it is likely to be
  successful
• Practical Executing the strategy
• Wisdom Ensuring that use of the strategy is
  ethical as well as legal and that it promotes the
  interests and reputation of the university

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Student-Life Example of WICS Student
Organizations

• Creative Create initiatives that benefit the
  university community
• Analytical Ask whether these initiatives are
  appropriate to your particular organization
• Practical Persuade others of the value of the
  initiatives implement the initiatives in a way
  that respects human and material resources
• Wisdom Ensure that the initiatives help achieve
  a common good for the university community

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Student-Life Example of WICS Greek Displays
at Homecoming

• Creative Design a display that is novel and
  interesting
• Analytical Ensure that the display is in good
  taste and is technically feasible
• Practical Actually build the display with the
  time available and within the budget allocated to
  the display
• Wisdom Ensure that the display is one that will
  bring pride, not embarrassment, to the university

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Student-Life Example of WICS Team Activities in
General

• Promote group creativity, analysis, practice, and
  wisdom
• Most activities in adult life involve working
  with others Team activities help prepare
  students for the challenges they will face
  working in teams
• These activities often more closely resemble
  adult-life challenges than do memory-based tests

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Wrap-Up

• WICS provides a basis for understanding and
  synthesizing admissions, formal and informal
  instruction, assessment, and student life
• It is based on the notion that leadership is a
  decisionthat one is not born a leader, but
  rather decides for leadership and then follows
  through with creative, analytical, practical, and
  wise thinking, as well as ethical acting

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What Makes a Great College or University?

• Research, teaching, and service that make the
  world a better place
• Value-added to students and employees as a result
  of the college/university experience
• An atmosphere that encourages all its employees
  to capitalize on their strengths and compensate
  for or correct their weaknesses through the
  development of creative, analytical, practical,
  and wisdom/ethical thought and action

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Applying WICS to Retention

• Teach in ways that help students to capitalize on
  their strengths and correct or compensate for
  their weaknesses
• Give students the academic scaffolding they need
  (memory-analytical skills)
• Provide students with the tacit knowledge they
  need to succeed in the college environment
  (practical skills)
• Help students through mentorship to cope flexibly
  with novel challenges (creative skills)
• Engage students in the college and making it a
  better place (wisdom-based skills)
• Establish student self-efficacy

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Contact Information

• Please contact me with your ideas for how to make
  OSU the very best place it can be
• Robert.sternberg_at_okstate.edu

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OSU Developing the New Leaders of the Next
Generation