The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook

Bridge the gap between leadership development and career preparation!

This guidebook gives leadership educators the tools they need to help students develop the competencies necessary for their chosen careers and required by their academic programs. It also offers a way to understand and demonstrate the effectiveness of leadership programs.

Organized into chapters each focused on one of 60 leadership competencies common across 522 academic degree programs accredited by 97 agencies, each chapter covers:

• a definition and description of the competency through the lens of each of four dimensions: knowledge, value, ability, and behavior;
• a scenario related to college student leadership that showcases the competency in action;
• related competencies to help readers understand how developing one competency may also intentionally or unintentionally develop another;
• a correlation of the competency to the Relational Leadership Model, the Social Change Model, the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, and/or Emotionally Intelligent Leadership; and
• tangible curricular ideas to use with students to help them develop each dimension of the competency.

Acknowledgments xi

About the Author xiii

Introduction xv

What Are Competencies? xv

Why Focus on Leadership Competencies? xv

How Were the Student Leadership Competencies Developed? xvi

What Are the Student Leadership Competencies? xviii

Tenets of the Student Leadership Competencies xx

Competencies and Learning Outcomes xxi

Using the Student Leadership Competencies xxii

Jossey-Bass Student Leadership Competencies Database xxiii

Self-Evaluation Templates xxiv

Using the Student Leadership Competencies: At-a-Glance xxvi

1. Learning and Reasoning 1

Research 1

Other Perspectives 3

Reflection and Application 5

Systems Thinking 7

Analysis 9

Synthesis 11

Evaluation 14

Idea Generation 16

Problem Solving 17

Decision Making 20

2. Self-Awareness and Development 23

Self-Understanding 23

Personal Values 25

Personal Contributions 27

Scope of Competence 30

Receiving Feedback 32

Self-Development 34

3. Interpersonal Interaction 37

Productive Relationships 37

Appropriate Interaction 39

Helping Others 42

Empathy 44

Mentoring 46

Motivation 48

Others’ Contributions 50

Empowerment 53

Providing Feedback 55

Supervision 58

Collaboration 60

4. Group Dynamics 63

Organizational Behavior 63

Power Dynamics 65

Group Development 68

Creating Change 70

5. Civic Responsibility 73

Diversity 73

Others’ Circumstances 75

Inclusion 77

Social Justice 79

Social Responsibility 81

Service 83

6. Communication 87

Verbal Communication 87

Nonverbal Communication 89

Listening 92

Writing 94

Facilitation 96

Conflict Negotiation 98

Advocating for a Point of View 100

7. Strategic Planning 105

Mission 105

Vision 107

Goals 109

Plan 111

Organization 113

8. Personal Behavior 117

Initiative 117

Functioning Independently 119

Follow-Through 121

Responsibility for Personal Behavior 123

Ethics 125

Responding to Ambiguity 128

Responding to Change 130

Resiliency 132

Positive Attitude 134

Confidence 136

Excellence 138

References and Resources 141

The Jossey-Bass Student Leadership Competencies Database can be accessed at www.josseybass.com/go/studentleadershipcompetencies

Corey Seemiller is the director of Leadership Programs at the University of Arizona, teaches several leadership courses, and oversees Leadership Courses for Credit and the minor in Leadership Studies and Practice.

Survey after survey finds that the qualities employers most look for in recent college graduates are those related to leadership, even ahead of technical job skills. Finally, the must-have resource that bridges the gap between leadership development and career preparation is here.

Based on the learning outcomes of 522 academic programs within 97 academic accrediting organizations and concepts embedded in contemporary leadership models, The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook explores 60 leadership competencies essential for effectiveness across a broad spectrum of careers. This Guidebook, along with the accompanying Jossey-Bass Student Leadership Competencies Database and Student Self-Evaluation Templates (both available online), provides a road map for incorporating leadership competencies into program development, curriculum design, and assessment to help students develop and enhance these 60 leadership competencies in order to effectively engage in leadership. The author defines each competency through the lens of four dimensions, knowledge, value, ability, and behavior, and provides both an illustrative scenario related to college student leadership that showcases the competency in action and tangible curricular ideas to use with students.

"This guidebook is a new foundational resource for both curricular and cocurricular student leadership education. Supported by her extensive research, Seemiller presents the leadership competencies in an approachable framework and includes how to address them in the curriculum."—Susan R. Komives, coauthor, Exploring Leadership: For College Students Who Want to Make a Difference, Third Edition

"The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook provides the scaffolding required to advance both academics' and practitioners' ability to design curriculum focused on behavioral outcomes and provide the fabric for assessment of students' lifelong leadership competency development."—Craig Slack, director, National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs

"Given how leadership can be defined in so many ways, a comprehensive resource like this is essential to assessing if what we are doing is truly helping to develop the competencies intended through our programs."—A. Paul Pyrz, Jr., president, LeaderShape