Celebrating and Advancing Leadership at UW-Madison

This spring marks the fourth year of an initiative’s vision for leadership at UW–Madison. Through its development of a campus leadership framework, the Coordinated Leadership Initiative (CLI) has positively impacted curriculum, student organizations, and employee engagement.

CLI will celebrate its accomplishments with a Spring Open House on Thursday, April 30, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Orchard View Room on the third floor of the Discovery Building. At the event, implementers of the Leadership Framework will tell their stories in short “flash talks,” a vision for a future leadership website will be introduced and, most importantly, there will be plenty of time for informal conversations among attendees to make one-on-one connections and to exchange ideas about leadership development. Executive sponsors from the Division of Student Life and Office of Human Resource Development will also share their observations about the CLI’s journey.

The Open House is open to everyone on campus. More information about the event and how to register is on the CLI Website at http://leadership.wisc.edu/Spring-Open-House.htm

Driven by the grassroots effort of campus leadership education advocates, the CLI grew out of the belief that a shared understanding of “leadership” would enable a broader campus commitment to leadership development for students, faculty and staff. The initiative quickly gained the support of the Division of Student Life and Office of Human Resource Development.  

In the fall of 2012, a cross-campus team set out to create UW–Madison’s Leadership Framework to support the university community’s orientation to critical leadership concepts. The team recognized UW–Madison’s long history of developing alumni who are engaged in leadership in private, nonprofit, government and community organizations. After reviewing leadership research and scholarship, the team determined that the framework should be founded on the principles that leadership is action-oriented, contextual and creates positive change. The framework includes seven leadership competencies and three leadership values that, when put into practice, result in measurable outcomes.

In the two years since the Leadership Framework’s creation, CLI teams of volunteers from various schools, colleges and divisions have introduced the framework to campus. The CLI now supports a growing community of leadership practitioners who are applying the Leadership Framework in a wide variety of new and existing programs.

“Leadership and Civic Engagement for Social Change,” a newly created course offered through the School of Human Ecology, uses the framework to help students develop their understanding of leadership, civic engagement and social justice. Throughout the course students have the opportunity to learn more about their own leadership style, concepts of privilege and power, conflict resolution, and moving their passions into action.

Rob Brown, a course instructor from the Multicultural Student Center, has seen the following benefits: “The Leadership Framework has helped to provide a roadmap for discussing leadership as a prolonged series of actions and behaviors that has helped my students learn that leadership for social change is an everyday process that each of us serve a critical role in engaging.”

Jasmin Becerra, a current first-year student in the course, described the impact of the course in the following way: “Whatever discipline or career I pursue, I hope to find a way to still be invested in my community, or surrounding communities, for the sake of fostering a sense of empowerment, solidarity and justice in our youth, elders and friends.“

In addition to developing leadership capacity in the classroom, other programs have adopted the framework to support positive change in values and behavior. The Badgers Step Up! program trains students as agents of change to address alcohol abuse. The program incorporates the framework to develop effective intervention techniques and explores the use of specific leadership competencies to reduce harm.

Guided by their managers, employees of DoIT’s Digital Publishing and Printing office leverage the framework’s values and competencies to develop stretch and growth goals. Intentional dialogue has resulted in increased employee connections and commitment to their work.

“The Campus Leadership Framework perfectly aligns with our Mission and Vision at DPPS. In conjunction with several internal professional development efforts, we have had great success using the framework to influence staff to explore and pursue their leadership development journeys,” says Geoff Larson, the department’s director.