The following seminars and workshops are offered by Leadership Development as part of the  Bring Student Life into your Class series. Each module is 30-90 minutes in length, and can be used as a stand-alone lecture or in conjunction with other relevant modules (i.e. those in the same theme). 

Workshop Themes
Theme 1: Theories and Relevance of Leadership
Theme 2: Management vs. Leadership
Theme 3: Understanding your SUPERPOWERS
Theme 4: Leading a Team
Theme 5: Leadership and Design
Theme 6: Leadership in Community

Each module can be adapted to suit the needs of the academic (or non-academic) audience. Please contact Jen Crowe or Ryan Murphy at leadership@mun.ca for more information or to book a seminar or workshop.

Theme 1: Theories and Relevance of Leadership

Module 1: Introduction to Leadership Education: Why Study Leadership?
Time: 30 mins
This module explores the theory and utility of leadership development in the 21st century. Acting as an introductory lesson for students who have not previously been exposed to leadership education, this session will provide an overview of leadership theories and challenge students to come up with their own definition of leadership. Through this session, students will relate understandings of leadership to their relevant academic or professional discipline.

Module 2: Practicing Leadership: Not a One Size Fits All Approach.
Time: 30 mins
In this engaging session, students will be introduced to six different leadership models and will be challenged to think of each model as having pros and cons and a purpose. We will delve into numerous examples of commonly known leaders and the leadership styles they are best known for. Through this session, students will be challenged to consider which model of leadership they most strongly identify with.

Theme 2: Management vs. Leadership

Module 3: The Power of Informal Leadership
Time: 30 mins
This module explores the concept of informal leadership and how students can be leaders-and develop their skills as leaders-without having a formal leadership position. When conceptualizing “leadership” for the first time, our mind jumps to formal leaders: Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Mahatma Gandhi. However, most often it is the informal leaders that make the most impact on our academic, professional and personal lives. From taking a stand on an ethical issue, to encouraging others to succeed, to sharing expert knowledge with others, students can take on informal leadership roles every day. Understanding how we can take on informal leadership roles helps best position us to chart our paths forward as leaders.

Module 4 and 5: Management is (not necessarily) Leadership
Time: two 30-minute sessions
In this session, students will be challenged to explore the difference between management and leadership by reflecting on their own experiences as, or interacting with, leaders and managers. Using existing management frameworks and a case study, students will consider the differences between management and leadership and the utility of both.

Theme 3: Understanding your SUPERPOWERS

Module 6: Finding and Harnessing your Strengths as a Leader
Time: 60 or 90 mins
Cost: $19.99 USD/student (discounted group rates available)
Before you can envision yourself as a leader, you must be able to know and understand what your strengths are. Before completing this module, students take an online StrengthsFinder assessment, which will identify their main strengths and generate a detailed report of what their strengths are and how these strengths are applied. Students will then attend a session with a certified Memorial StrengthsFinder coach, who will facilitate further exploration of these strengths and how they can be applied for leadership development.

Theme 4: Leading a Team

Module 7: Developing and Motivating a Successful Team
Time: 30 mins

Being able to successfully develop and motivate a team is a key role of many leaders. Drawing on research, students will explore how successful relationship building and the establishment of group norms influence the success of a team and how students can apply these strategies to the teams that they are a part of.

Module 8: When Teams Fall Apart: Strategies for Building Stronger Teams
Time: 30 mins
It’s one thing to have a happy team, and it’s another to keep the team happy. Patrick Lencioni argues that there are five dysfunctions of a team: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. In this workshop, students will be challenged to analyze an excising team that they are a part of by assessing it’s functionality through an assessment and learning strategies to strengthen the team, despite it’s challenges.

Theme 5: Leadership and Design

Module 9: Introduction to Systems Thinking
Time: 30 mins
Many of the phenomena that we see and experience happen or exist because of the interconnection of people, organizations, technology and many other factors. Systems thinking gives us a set of tools to help us perceive and model these interconnections to understand the often-counterintuitive behaviours of these interactions. In this session, students will be introduced to the concept and utility of systems thinking in understanding the world around us.

Module 10: Systems Thinking and Change Making
Time: 30 mins
How can we use models of social systems to identify opportunities for innovation and social change? Students will engage in a systems mapping exercise to explore how this method can facilitate the solving of a problem that they are attempting to tackle in their work, volunteerism or personal life.

Module 11: Introduction to Design Thinking
Time: 30 mins
Design thinking allows us to discover a host of methods that allow us to understand what our problems are, where they come from, why they matter and who’s involved--all to tackle problems at a deeper level. This workshop will explore methods that organize and reframe complex problems using empathy, participatory research methods and prototyping with design thinking. In this workshop, we will introduce you to design thinking and how to use it to understand the world around you.

Module 12: Applying Design Thinking to Personal Goals
Time: 30 mins
Through this workshop, students will learn about the application of “maps, compasses, and mantras”- or in other words- design tools that can be applied directly to planning and tracking development towards a goal.

Theme 6: Leadership in Community

Module 13: Leadership in Community
Time: 45 mins-60 mins
What does leadership look like in our city and our province? What lessons can we learn from those who are creating impact through their leadership? We co-host this presentation and Q&A with a Student Leadership Development community partner; a community activist, an organizational leader, or a social change-maker. The focus of this session is on lessons learned from these leaders’ personal journey and how these lessons can help students in developing themselves as leaders.

Module 14: Asset Mapping for Effective Change making
Time: 45 mins
The power of asset mapping is that it facilitates the analysis of an organization or group by narrowing in on its strengths to strategically and successfully move the organization forward. Through this session, we will facilitate an asset mapping exercise to demonstrate the effectiveness of this tool in creating social and organizational change.

Module 15: Effective Engagement for Effective Leadership
Time: 30 mins
When creating change-whether it’s creating a new fundraising initiative, introducing a new structure to an organization or developing a new program- listening to and engaging with all stakeholders is essential. This module equips students with tools to effectively engage the people that they are serving or working with, to best position their new initiative for success.