Last week, our very own Bo Shi wrote about his experience as a LEAD Facil (read more about it here). The learning experiences and chance to improve his own leadership skills pushed Bo to dedicate months to developing the LEAD curriculum and facilitating the first-year class.
However, the new Y1s at Booth are leaders in their own right. Booth’s Class of 2020 was featured this week in a Poets & Quants article highlighting their leadership and experiences in LEAD. In this leadership series, we will delve deeper into these students’ profiles and discover what leadership means to them!
At Booth, we pride ourselves on the flexible curriculum, but there is one required class every first-year student must take their first quarter: Leadership Effectiveness And Development—or LEAD for short. Through LEAD, students explore how their personality and cultural experiences impact their leadership style and receive valuable 360 feedback on how their professional behavior is perceived. But the course doesn’t only provide value to first-years. For a select group of ~40 second-year students (including me), it provides the unique opportunity to develop and facilitate a curriculum for the incoming first-years that directly impacts the culture of leadership at Booth.
We call ourselves LEAD Facilitators (Facils for short)—recognizable by our stylish Leadership Development Office polos and unmistakable charm. But we don’t do it (just) for the free swag and recognition. Every Facil’s motivations may be different, here are mine…
There were many times when I sat through my classes at Booth and thought, what are the main lessons I will remember from this class? I’ve wondered which economic models and strategic frameworks will form my management toolkit as I progress in my career. Luckily, I didn’t need to wait very long to find out. As I go through my Product Management internship at Amazon, I already find myself relying on many lessons covered by my classes at Booth thus far.
One of my goals when I was looking at MBA programs was to develop myself as a leader, and I chose Booth because I recognized the school’s focus on this goal as well. The indicator was that our sole mandatory class is Leadership Effectiveness and Development, better known as LEAD. Taught by second-year students, LEAD is our first class at Booth. It teaches you a range of important leadership skills, from first impressions to cross-cultural communications.
For me, what the LEAD course kick-started in my leadership development during my first quarter — Leadership Practicum truly helped round out as I finish up my second year.
I didn’t know exactly what to expect when I signed up for the Booth Leadership Vision Retreat, though it was an concept that had been brewing in Booth’s Leadership Development Office for several years. What I found was an incredible opportunity to get out of Chicago for a weekend, reflect on what was important, share my experiences with my community, and think about the next steps in my life.
