Overview
Rochester’s Approach to Leadership
At Rochester, we understand leadership as a collaborative process through which individuals create change in their communities, regardless of whether they hold a position of authority. We believe that leadership can be learned through reflective experience and must be practiced to achieve competency and excellence.
Leadership is a College Competency; through formal and informal positions, everyone can be a leader. Students leverage the strengths of community to reach common goals and use interpersonal skills for coaching and development. Through a process of learning and applying skills, students can accomplish measurable and meaningful change.
Our programs are informed by:
- The Social Change Model of leadership, developed by the National Clearinghouse on Leadership Programs
- The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education
- Evaluating leadership outcomes for our students specifically by participating in the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership on a triennial schedule since its inception in 2006
- University of Rochester Vision and Values: meliora, equity, leadership, integrity, openness, respect, and accountability
We adhere to the research and philosophy that leadership is:
- A process
- Collaborative
- Based on values
- Non-positional
- About change
- A behavior that can be practiced and learned
- Shared and situational: leaders and followers can often trade places
- Action that is induced through the ownership of a shared vision