Susan R. Komives - Leadership for a better world: understanding the social change model of leadership development

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Komives, Susan R., 1946- author. | Wagner, Wendy (Wendy Elizabeth)

Title: Leadership for a better world : understanding the social change model of leadership development / Susan R. Komives, Wendy Wagner, and Associates.

Description: Second edition. | San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016029343 (print) | LCCN 2016031054 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119207597 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781119207603 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119207610 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Universities and collegesAdministration. | College administratorsProfessional relationships. | Educational leadership. | Social change.

Classification: LCC LB2341 .K66 2017 (print) | LCC LB2341 (ebook) | DDC 378.1/01dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016029343

Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: Ralf Hiemisch/Getty Images, Inc.

Dedicated to
Helen S. Astin
19322015
Activist, thinker, leader, scholar, friend
Cocreator of the Social Change Model of Leadership Development

If you were to ask academics to list their most important learning goals for students, they would most likely include outcomes such as knowledge acquisition, the development of critical thinking skills, and the like. However, what most academics probably don't realize is that the student quality most frequently mentioned in the official mission statements of their colleges and universities is leadership.

The process that created the Social Change Model of Leadership Development (SCM) in many respects modeled the model. From the beginning it followed one of the basic precepts underlying the Social Change Model: that leadership is something carried out by a group rather than by an individual. Individuals can, of course, initiate. In fall 1993 my dear late wife and colleague Helen (Lena) Astin initiated the process when she dropped by my office to inform me that a young friend of ours, Goodwin Liu (another initiator), had brought to her attention a new federally funded program that might interest us. Known as the Dwight Eisenhower Leadership program, it provided funds for the creation of student leadership projects on college campuses. Because both Lena and I had previously conducted research on leadership, the project intrigued us. Our understanding of the leadership process suggested that what was really needed was a framework, or model, that could guide students in developing their leadership skills. We wanted the model to help instill in young persons a strong sense of social responsibility and a desire to become instruments of positive social change.

Because neither of us was particularly knowledgeable about matters relating to student leadership development, we naturally turned to the folks who do this for a living: student affairs practitioners. Most American college campuses are home to student affairs professionals who are deeply involved in the process of facilitating student leadership development, so we felt that the ideal model would be one that capitalized on the knowledge and experience of some of these experts. Lena and I started calling our friends in the student affairs field, including several who were or had been presidents of NASPA and ACPA, the field's two leading national professional associations, to identify individuals who were regarded as experts in student leadership development. The first few experts we contacted were also helpful in identifying additional colleagues to be recruited for the group that eventually came to call itself the working ensemble. Our ensemble comprised 15 individuals, including 8 leadership experts from the field of student affairs, 4 UCLA doctoral students, the Astins, and Carole Leland, Lena's coauthor of their landmark study of 77 women leaders, Women of Influence, Women of Vision. Carole had been working for the Center for Creative Leadership in North Carolina, and Lena was a member of the board of the center. Other members of the original ensemble included one of this book's editorsSusan R. Komivesand two of its chapter authors: Dennis C. Roberts and Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth.

Our ensemble held seven 2-day meetings over a period of more than a year with the aim of forging a preliminary version of a Social Change Model of Leadership Development. The notion of social change was embraced by the ensemble in recognition of two principles: (1) that leadership, as opposed to mere management, necessarily involves change and (2) that social change implies service to the others (i.e., Citizenship). Ensemble meetings, which were facilitated mainly by Lena, were lively and sometimes contentious, but nearly all participants remained focused on the goal of developing a workable model (Collaboration, Commitment, Common Purpose). To ensure that the ensemble could capitalize on the collective wisdom of the entire group, Lena actively encouraged each participant to be authentic and to share his or her viewpoints openly (Congruence).

By its third meeting our working ensemble had come to realize that the model had to be value-based, and to that end we began to create a list of basic values. Members would propose a particular value (e.g., Collaboration) to be added to the list, and we would all debate its pros and cons. One of the key considerations in these discussions was that the individual values be consistent, complementary, comprehensive, and nonredundant. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, we labeled the preliminary list of values The Seven Cs.