Youth Leadership Development in the Start2Finish Running & Reading Club

Researchers have asserted that offering intentional leadership roles to youth can help them to develop life skills (e.g., communication, decision-making); however, few physical-activity-based positive youth development programs provide youth these intentional leadership roles, and little research has explored the impact of these opportunities on youth who take them up. The purpose of this study was to understand the developmental experiences of youth leaders in a physical-activity-based positive youth development program. Sixteen youth leaders (Mage= 13.37, SD = 1.36) from 4 sites of the Start2Finish Running & Reading Club participated in semi-structured interviews to discuss their experiences as junior coaches. Fertman and van Linden’s (1999) model of youth leadership development was used to guide the data collection and analysis. Through deductive-inductive thematic analysis, 3 themes were constructed: (a) awareness: developing into leaders started with seeing potential through role models, (b) interaction: learning by doing and interacting with others helped youth to practice leadership abilities, and (c) mastery: taking on greater responsibility allowed for opportunities to refine leadership abilities and develop a variety of life skills. These themes helped to bring an understanding to the processes involved in leadership and life-skill development. Practical and research implications are discussed regarding leveraging youth leadership opportunities in youth programming.

Developing leadership potential in graduate students with assessment, self-awareness, reflection and coaching

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative, research-based approach for stimulating self-awareness, reflection and intentional leadership development and address a call from the academic and business community to educate and prepare graduate students for leadership in contemporary complex workplaces. Building on previous research findings and recommendations, the authors suggest that leadership potential is understood and facilitated through leadership assessment, increased self-awareness and faculty coach-supported reflection and development planning by MBA students. Based on three key constructs in leadership development, a conceptual model depicts the approach to developing potential leaders at this juncture in their professional development. Design/methodology/approach New MBA students completed a leadership potential assessment instrument designed to target areas for focused leadership development throughout their MBA program and beyond. The assessment process is followed by faculty coach-supported reflection and development planning as an assignment during the students’ MBA orientation course. To explore the impact of this innovative approach to accelerating the development of leadership potential, reflection papers from students who completed the process were analyzed. Data analysis consisted of content coding with an inter-rater reliability of 0.99 to classify the responses into four key categories. Survey data were also collected from 504 MBA students who attended an on-campus orientation course to measure students’ increasing understanding and awareness of the value of the leadership development opportunity. Findings Quantitative and qualitative results provide initial support for this approach to developing leadership potential. Results suggest that the integrative model stimulates a process of awareness, reflection and intentional development, and supports the identification and pursuit of goal-directed learning opportunities throughout students’ MBA program. Originality/value Graduate business school students are at a leadership inflection point in their trajectory as leaders. Business colleges play a key role in closing the leadership gap during the development cycle of the students’ MBA program. The innovative approach in this paper, which facilitates self-awareness, reflection and intentional leadership development, offers a model for business colleges exploring how to foster these necessary leadership insights and capabilities.

Telehealth Governance: An Essential Tool to Empower Today’s Healthcare Leaders

Strong telehealth governance serves as the cornerstone for advancing a telehealth strategy by ensuring that the health system has the intentional leadership infrastructure to compete and excel in this fast-paced and transforming industry. Effective governance is the essential first step towards successful management. The former informs the latter to optimize value to the stakeholders. Paraphrasing the Financial Reporting Council, corporate (telehealth) governance should contribute to better company performance by helping a board discharge its duties in the best interests of stakeholders: executive leadership, management, staff, customers, patients, vendors, communities, and regulators, etc. Good governance facilitates efficient, effective, and entrepreneurial management that can deliver value over the longer term. If ignored, the consequences may be vulnerability or poor performance (Financial Reporting Council, 2008).

Collaborative Civil Society Organizations and Sustainable Cities: The Role of “Mobilizing Leadership” in Building the Integral Commons

Sustainability issues are characterized by their relational nature and so require stakeholders working across sectors to integrate their interests. This article conducts an empirical examination across seven convening organizations we describe as “Collaborative Civil Society Organizations” to understand the intentional leadership activities that catalyze cross-sector social partnerships in the context of regional sustainability initiatives. Our research findings suggest that social movement theory can provide insight to inform our understanding of the nature of intentional leadership activities that help to motivate and initiate the formation of these cross-sector social partnerships. By enfolding this literature in the interpretation of our findings, we have articulated an empirically grounded construct of “mobilizing leadership.” We suggest that by approaching regional sustainability initiatives as a social movement, mobilizing leadership has the potential to extend the cosmopolitan view toward building a biosphere consciousness, enabling the development of local multisector interactions in response to global issues of sustainability.