In this week’s Trivia Tuesday column we turn our focus to the Johnson School at Cornell University and the program’s opportunities for leadership development.
The Johnson School’s leadership philosophy is founded on personal mastery through self-knowledge and self-development. As such, Johnson students begin their MBA experience with an intensive and interactive personal assessment and continue feedback and assessment sessions into the fall semester.
For students seeking to further develop their leadership abilities, Johnson offers a 10-credit Leadership Focus. The cornerstone of the Leadership Focus is the Goal Setting and Coaching for Leadership Success course, which is centered on the idea of “leader as coach.” The course trains students to effect personal behavior change, then to develop coaching strategies that enable them to help others. Throughout the semester-long course, students practice leadership by acting as a coach for a classmate. They also regularly update the personal learning plans they made during orientation so that the plans reflect their leadership progress.
Students may fulfill the remaining 8.5 credits of the Leadership Focus by choosing among thirteen 1.5- or 3-credit leadership course offerings. They can also contribute credit from day-long Leadership Skills workshops. These workshops are part of Johnson’s Leadership Skills Program, which supplements the traditional business school curriculum through one-day workshops exploring practical skills from etiquette to Excel. The workshops range from three to eight hours in duration and are worth 0.1 elective credits. While there is no limit to the number of workshops a student can participate in, only 1.5 workshop credits may be applied toward graduation. Topics range from “Building Rapport through Applied Listening” to “Wine Appreciation.”
For more information on the leadership development programs at Cornell or other leading business schools, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Academics and Special Programs sections of the Clear Admit School Guides!
