By Kate Jonuska
“Great leaders are born, not made,” goes the oft-heard idiom, but J. Stephen Kirkpatrick begs to disagree. As the dean of the School of Organizational Leadership at the University of the Rockies, it’s his job to sculpt students into successful leaders every day.
“The idea that leaders are born? No. Leadership behavior is something you can observe, get feedback on and learn to do better,” Kirkpatrick says, explaining that the University of the Rockies ― a graduate-level institution specializing in the various fields of psychology ― founded the School of Organizational Leadership in 2007 in order to train professionals in the psychology of groups and how to make those groups successful.
“When we say organizational leadership, we’re talking about leading any type of organization, whether that’s in the military, in the private sector in a corporation, or in a non profit or a religious group,” he explains. “We distinguish leadership from management because we believe management is about scheduling, budgets, resources. Leadership is about influencing other people to help you accomplish the organization’s goal, objectives and strategies.”
Using psychology and social science, organizational leadership graduates learn to understand others, find what motivates them, bond teams and develop strategies for success in any industry, because every industry involves people. And with 11 specializations within the School of Organizational Leadership ― including executive coaching, mediation and conflict resolution, business psychology, non-profit management and more ― the University of the Rockies can prepare students to take any career to the next level.
CLICK HERE to read the full text of this article, which published on Oct. 25, 2009 in Springs Jobs.
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