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Leadership Development Institute

In November 2007, Student Affairs' Enrollment and Academic Services launched the Leadership Development Institute (LDI), a six-month, on-campus program for staff that develops the core qualities and characteristics manifested by exceptional leaders.

"The LDI was created to identify and nurture, and retain, existing talent in Student Affairs, Enrollment Services," says Mary Bankston, co-creator of the program and Associate Director of Financial Aid.

All units in Enrollment and Academic Support Services are represented by the program's 18 initial participants.

After learning about leadership programs for staff at other UC campuses, Bankston and Lora Jo Bossio, Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment and Academic Support Services, submitted and received approval for their proposal to create a program at Davis. They convened an advisory committee composed of staff from each unit in Enrollment and Academic Support Services that met for a year to design develop the program content and curriculum and hire a vendor to deliver the curriculum program.

"We spent a lot of time talking about what we wanted participants to get out of it," says Bossio, "and how to sustain the knowledge gained. The latter was particularly important. That's why this is a six-month program and not a one-day workshop."

Sonoma Learning Systems, the vendor for LDI, utilizes "The Leadership Challenge," which was written by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, based on 25 years of original research and data from over 3 million leaders. "That Kouzes and Posner have data to support what they teach makes it a good fit for a research institution," says Bossio.

A key component of the program for both Bankston and Bossio was ensuring the inaugural class represented a cross-section of job classifications. "Posner and Kouzes firmly believe you can demonstrate leadership in whatever position you have; leadership is learned," says Bossio. "Their Leadership Challenge model advocates five practices for an exceptional leader, and we can all develop and nurture those five practices."

Adds Bankston, "Yes, this philosophy resonated with the advisory group. The participants aren't learning how to be financial aid officers or how to work in admissions, they're learning core leadership characteristics and values that they can use anywhere they go, and in their personal lives."

Now halfway through the program, LDI participants have divided into three action-learning teams that will each tackle a project reflecting the mission and vision of Enrollment Services. "The teams have until June to identify and define a problem, and create and implement a solution," says Bankston. "Each project addresses a short-range goal for Enrollment Services."

Enrollment Services directors are attending concurrent workshops to learn the same terminology and concepts being taught to the LDI participants. "This enables directors to acknowledge when LDI participants put what they've learned intoaction," says Bossio.

"It's very exciting to see the program's impact," says Bankston. "What I've heard many times in the past month is that participants are seeing where they can apply the knowledge and practices, which last November and December seemed theoretical Now they're applying it, working it into their jobs each day, and they're finding the benefit and how it works."