BC Business
More and more, however, attention is also being focused on the business of leadership.
Royal Roads University associate professor Carolin Rekar Munro explores these issues in Leadership Experience, offered at both the graduate and undergraduate level in the Schools of Business and Tourism & Hospitality.
“It’s quite an innovative and practical approach to leadership,” she says. “We’ve really moved more toward an understanding that leadership doesn’t come with a position and title. The journey begins now, wherever you are,” adds Munro.
“We’re also seeing more of a focus on what it is that attracts people to good leaders,” says Munro. At the start of the course, learners are encouraged to identify their own existing attributes and skills as leaders. Students then explore the best practices of leadership demonstrated around the world, and consider how they can adopt those practices that make sense for them and their chosen career path.
“What are the core qualities that you have and can develop that make people want to follow you?” Rekar Munro says. Recognizing Royal Roads learners are at various points in their careers, the question becomes, “How do we make this meaningful to you, regardless of where you are in your leadership journey?” she explains.
By unlocking the secrets of effective leadership, in all its forms, students are not pigeonholed into a particular leadership model, but exposed to a variety of approaches.
“How will you develop your own creative way of leading?” Rekar Munro asks.
Illustrating Royal Roads’ practical approach to learning, a key component of the course is the Leadership Challenge where local organizations are invited to speak to the students about actual issues they are facing. Students listen to the problem and work in groups to present possible solutions. Several months later, the organization returns to provide an update, exploring what they tried and the results.
The university’s ability to be responsive to today’s business models and trends allows its graduates the most current learning experiences.
Through Leadership Experience, for example, students explore one of today’s hot-button topics: emotional intelligence. “How do we lead with Emotional Intelligence?” Rekar Munro asks learners. “Are you aware of your own emotions and how they project to your everyday working relationships with people? And how do they affect those people?”
Munro adds: “Emotional intelligence really is a leadership skill that involves being aware of their own emotions and how they respond to others. Specifically, how do they manage their emotions in a way that is constructive in decision-making.” In a real world, business application, emotional intelligence affects how people relate to each other, and their ability to develop and sustain strong relationships, both with co-workers and clients. Munro says that research suggests “85 per cent of your success will be based on your ability to manage your emotions.”
It’s a message the best leaders would take to heart.