An Innovative Approach to Cultivating Leadership Competency in a Leadership and Management Course

Development of effective leaders involves dynamic and innovative thinking, requiring active educational approaches. Faculty chose Learning about Leadership and Management by Experiencing It to guide pedagogical methodologies. Students were placed in teams and provided brief team training the first week of class. Each team created a team name, code of conduct and weekly role rotation. The role rotation provided an opportunity to experience the individual and team impact of the various roles. Developing codes of conduct encouraged civil team discussion, collaboration, and decision-making. The faculty utilized case studies and assignments to identify and exploit team member strengths. Since effective leaders must be adept communicators, students created presentations with visual and interactive elements. Peer evaluation, reflective practice and continuous quality improvement concepts were woven into the presentation assignment. Student learning outcomes included the ability to apply principles and compare/contrast leadership and management skills for an effective work environment. Student and preceptor comments reflected valuing the learning methodologies, student growth and student ability to apply classroom experiences in “real world” healthcare settings. The university evaluation tool demonstrated student satisfaction was very high (3.84/4.0). The learner will identify at least two innovative pedagogical methodologies. The learner will assess possible replication of the methodologies