Competencies

What Are Competencies?

“Competencies are knowledge, values, abilities, and behaviours that help an individual contribute to or successfully engage in a role or task.” Seemiller, C. (2013) p. XV.

Social Change Wheel

M-LEAD has identified a CORE set of leadership competencies that we believe are important for students to develop in order to enhance their abilities to lead change. The competencies are focused in the four main areas of communication, organizational development, reflection and emotional intelligence.

The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook (2013) by Dr. Corey Seemiller serves as the framework for our leadership competencies and how we define them. We have focused on 12 competencies from the 60 identified by Dr. Seemiller. Each of our leadership offerings in Student Life has specific competencies that students learn about and develop during that offering.

Visit our programs page to sort our offerings by competency.

M-LEAD CORE Competencies

Click on each competency to view relevant opportunities!

Under each competency, we have also compiled a list of resources specifically related to each of our core leadership competencies.

LEGEND:

i (individual) = resource intended for individuals
g (group) = intended for group development
c (community) = intended for community development

Communication

Quickly, positively, and smoothly transitioning oneself and / or others in response to a known or unknown change.

Adaptability Resources

Change and Flexibility (Leah Linsalato) (i)
Adapting to Change Requires Flexibility (Center for Creative Leadership) (i)
What are you willing to give up to change the way we work? (Martin Danoesastro) (i)
Leading Through Uncertainty (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Accepting Change (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Effectively managing group process during a meeting, presentation, or gathering without inputting one’s opinion by directing the flow of the discussion/dialogue, asking prompting questions, and keeping the group on track.

Facilitation Resources

IGR Working Paper Series (i)
LSA Inclusive Teaching Resources (i/g)
Developing Facilitation Skills (Community Tool Box, University of Kansas) (c)
Facilitation Tips (Center for Civic Reflection) (i/g)
Facilitation Tools (Training for Change) (i/g/c)
Case Study (i/g/c)
IGR Insights (i)

Evaluating feedback from others and implementing appropriate change in an effort to develop one’s own capacity and effectiveness with others.

Feedback Resources

Providing Feedback to Improve the Initiative (Community Tool Box) (c)
Understanding People’s Needs (Community Tool Box) (c)
Run, hide, or say thank you: When faced with feedback, what do you do? (Joy Mayer, Director, Columbia Missourian) (i)
Giving and Receiving Feedback (The Washington Nonprofit Institute) (g)
Motivation Through Feedback (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Giving Feedback (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Learning From a Mistake (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Organizational Change

The process of doing, creating, or implementing with an individual, group or community.

Action Resources

Action Road Map Planning Tool (Everyday Democracy) (c)
Identifying Action Steps (Community Tool Box, University of Kansas) (c)
Coalition Action Plan (CoalitionsWork) (c)
The Science of Taking Action (Steve Garguilo) (i)
Being an agent of change (Lead Read Today, Ohio State University) (i)
Leading Social Change (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Direct Action Tools (Training for Change) (i/g/c)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Cultivating connections with others that contribute positively to the well-being of those involved.

Building Relationships Resources

Building Relationships and Creating Communities (EDUCAUSE Review) (i/c)
Stewardship: Building Power without Using Authority (Zingerman’s) (i/g)
Building Bonds (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Being able to develop strategies that define the aspirations and direction of an individual, organization, or community and how to use it to guide actions and decisions.

Vision Resources

Proclaiming Your Dream (Community Tool Box, University of Kansas) (c)
Coalition Vision, Mission, & Goals (CoalitionsWork) (c)
SMART Goals (DecisionSkills) (i/g)
Developing a Vision Statement (Pepperdine University) (i)
Why and How Visioning Works (Zingerman’s) (i/g)
The Power of Visioning (Zingerman’s) (i/g)
Setting Priorities (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Realigning for Impact (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Reflection

The degree to which one understands and is true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character, despite external pressures.

Authenticity Resources

Authenticity on One’s Own Terms (Patricia Hewlin, Associate Professor, McGill University) (i)
Authentic Leadership During Times of Change (Change: A Leader’s Perspective) (i)
Authentic Leadership for the Future (Irving Washington, Executive Director) (i)
Policy or Principle (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Understanding the importance of making sense of experiences, people, and surroundings by placing “things” into some type of framework that enables people to comprehend, understand, explain, attribute extrapolate and predict.

Empathy Resources

Sometimes You’re a Caterpillar (Franchesca Ramsey, writer, actress, and video blogger) (i)
How to Start an Empathy Revolution (Roman Krznaric, The School of Life in London) (i/c)
Empathy (Brene Brown, Professor, University of Houston) (i)
Bare Power of Empathy (Leadership in Focus) (i)
The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World (Jamil Zaki, Associate Professor, Stanford University) (i)
Commitment to Empathy (Jamil Zaki, Associate Professor, Stanford University) (i)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Taking responsibility for one’s own behavior by admitting mistakes, apologizing, rectifying the situation, and accepting the consequences of one’s actions.

Humility Resources

Blame (Brene Brown, Professor, University of Houston) (i)
The Joy of Being Wrong (John Templeton Foundation) (i)
Are You Taking 100% Responsibility? (The Conscious Leadership Group) (i)
Mindfulness and Community Building (Community Tool Box) (c)
Keeping People Humble (Leadership in Focus) (i/g)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Is tolerant of stressful situations and adapts effectively to them; remains persistent under difficult situations and is able to recover from setbacks.

Resilience Resources

The Road to Resilience (American Psychological Association) (i)
Happy Brain: How to Overcome Our Neural Predispositions to Suffering (Amit Sood, MD Mayo Clinic) (i)
Developing a Growth Mindset (Carol Dweck Professor, Stanford University) (i)
Stress and Coping (Introduction to Community Psychology: Becoming an Agent of Change) (i)
Resilience (Katie Oblie) (i)
Building Resilient Communities (Nick Tilsen, Executive Director, Thunder Valley CDC) (c)
Community Resilience Tools & Resources (Center for Community Resilience) (c)
Resilience Model (George Mason University) (i)
Recovering from Failure (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Leading After Setbacks (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Dealing with a Setback (Leadership in Focus) (i)
Understanding Resiliency and Capitalizing on Adversity (Justin Stoddard) (i/g)
Case Study (i/g/c)

Why Competencies?

Having this set of competencies allows educators in Student Life to use consistent language, measurements and activities across our many units that do leadership education. This also allows our students to select offerings based on what competency or competencies they are looking to develop.

“Because the use of competencies is commonplace in many professional organizations (Ammons-Stephens, Cole, Jenkins-Gibbs, Riehele, & Weare, 2009) and in nearly 75 percent of businesses (Conger & Ready, 2004), focusing on competency development in college will allow students to become familiar with the process and language of competencies prior to entering their career field.” Seemiller, C. (2013) p. XVI.

Search Competencies by Career Field

In 2011, the Top Companies for Leaders Study found that nearly 75% of the 478 major global businesses they studied use competencies (Burns, Smith, & Ulrich, 2012). These include IBM, General Mills, and Proctor & Gamble (The RBL Group, 2012). Competencies are not only used by businesses; they are prevalent in the public sector and nonprofits as well, including the United States Army (2012), the United States Department of State (n.d.), and the YMCA (2010). Seemiller, C. (2018) Enhancing Leadership Competencies for Career Readiness.

Use the Student Leadership Competencies Database to find leadership competencies associated with your future career field.