Leadership Competencies
Leadership is defined as an influence for positive change in people and groups; it is a concept available to anyone regardless of age, experience, or natural skills. Kent State University believes that all individuals can lead, and we provide an abundance of co-curricular experiences and community partnerships to enhance students’ leadership identity, capacity, and efficacy. Kent State Leads context is modeled after KSU’s Leadership Centers model and requires a set of seven leadership competencies that can be taught and measured. The same model can be applied to student-athletes, coaches, and staff.
1. SELF-AWARENESS: Becoming aware of one’s perspectives, assumptions, and biases that inform how an individual makes meaning of experiences. Discovering one’s “why” and fulfilling that calling through clear personal and vocational goals while deepening one’s understanding of the personal values that guide behavior and motivate an individual to take action and act in alignment with those values
2. PERSONAL ACTIONS: Taking ownership of personal behaviors and demonstrating a willingness and ability to initiate action while exercising adaptability, optimism, and the ability to respond productively to uncertainty. Developing strategies to offer critiques and advice and valuing constructive feedback to develop individual capacities and effectiveness, and exercising independence and autonomy when completing tasks.
3. LEARNING AND REASONING: Establishing a continuous commitment to learning, reflection, integration, and application while generating new ideas and solutions to address complex problems in an ever-evolving landscape. Understanding how to identify and examine a problem, develop and assess possible solutions, and select the most appropriate solution, all while understanding the factors influencing a decision and incorporating multiple perspectives into the decision-making process
4. GROUP DYNAMICS: Understanding the culture, norms, practices, and behaviors specific to Kent States' organization and team dynamics for implementing strategies to assist groups in developing a sense of shared purpose, commitment, trust, and effectiveness and implementing strategies to achieve a common objective through the sharing of ideas and distribution of responsibilities across group members.
5. DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE: Acknowledging, accepting, and valuing differences including intersectional identities, while actively considering the inclusion of diverse opinions, experiences, and outlooks, inviting individuals to share perspectives, and contribute to a cause or task. It is providing individualized strategies that promote a sense of belonging for each SA, coach, and staff member—stressing suspending one’s frame of reference to see the world through others’ perspectives.
6. CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY: Recognizing one’s responsibility to the welfare of society and its members, enacting this responsibility and commitment through participation in experiences that positively contribute to a community or specific systemic issue. Acknowledging the interdependence of individuals working together towards positive change, recognizing that effective democracy involves individual and collective responsibility and commitment to the welfare of others.
7. SOCIAL JUSTICE- Awareness of systems of privilege and oppression that contribute to inequitable distributions of power based on social location. Demonstrating the motivation, value, and commitment to create more just, humane, and equitable systems within one’s own sphere of influence, exercising resilient hope and persistence in the collective struggle to redress inequitable systems and produce positive change.
