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Paradigms & Strategies of Leadership

This is an introductory class that can function as a stand-alone course or as the first step toward the Undergraduate Leadership Certificate.

Paradigms & Strategies of Leadership (LDRSHP 204) will help you become an effective leader on campus, in your community, and in your career. You will begin to develop your leadership toolkit, including how to:

• Ask powerful questions
• Inspire others
• Mobilize different types of people to maximize performance
• Thrive in teams
• Lead change
• Overcome adversity and learn from failure
• Understanding Inclusive Leadership

During the class, you'll examine fundamental challenges and concepts through exercises, lecture and discussion.

Leading from Design

1) If leadership is to be effective and sustained, you must lead out of who you are.

2) To lead out of who you are, you must know who you are.

From this starting point, this course takes you through a regimen of interior work to increase your self-awareness and provide you with tools you can use to continue to grow in this area after you complete the program.

Field Study in Leadership

As the third and final course in the Undergraduate Leadership Certificate path, Field Study in Leadership (LDRSHP 396) shifts the focus to the follower side of the leadership process. Specifically, you will explore the question “What do I understand about the perspective and experience of those I hope to lead?” This two-credit class includes a weekly seminar and a major leadership project of your own design. Here are a few recent examples:

• President of an anti-bullying program in which Northwestern athletes work with students at local elementary and middle schools
• Head of corporate relations for Dance Marathon
• President of Student Government
• Stage manager for a university theatre production

The minimum requirements for a field study experience to be approved are as follows: 

1) The endeavor must be one where the student doing the field study is mobilizing a group of at least 3 people (other than the student themselves) to collaborate with one another to accomplish a common purpose, goal or objective. 

2) The student must spend at least 160 hours leading the endeavor.

 The seminars and field experience combine to provide a space for you to discuss theories and insights, test them in a leadership setting where the stakes are real, report back and debrief the results and then further refine your leadership approach.

*The courses must be taken in order. Paradigms is a prerequisite for Leading from Design, which is a prerequisite for Field Studies.