The Doerr Institute for New Leaders is constantly creating new ways to develop leaders at Rice University. The institute’s latest efforts include getting students in front of leadership experts to develop their skills at Catalyst leadership workshops.
“Catalyst workshops are short-duration, two-part workshops based on targeted subjects related to leadership competencies,” said Doerr Institute Director Bernie Banks, who recently hosted two Catalyst Director’s Cut workshops on accountability.
Meant to grow leadership expertise in specific areas, these specialized, multisession workshops focus on a single leadership competency. They include hands-on practice with realistic scenarios in interactive, personalized environments and an evidence-based framework to assess participants’ leadership competency.
“The topic was well-received by the participants, and we had tremendous dialogue,” Banks said. “A lot of the people there had only thought about accountability through the prism of being accountable for their own actions. It was eye-opening for many of them to start to understand the importance of participating in the process of holding others to account and supporting other people’s accountability processes.”
While this session focused on accountability, others may touch on topics like effective feedback, dealing with conflict, delegation and more.
“As we think about not only getting people excited about the prospect of leading and starting to view themselves as leaders, we also want to ensure we are equipping them to lead well,” Banks said. “A lot of the work we do around coaching is geared towards identity and increasing one’s belief in their abilities, but these workshops are specifically targeted at skills development. You need both belief and capability to lead.”
Catalyst workshops are free to all Rice students and are easy to fit into one’s schedule. To learn more, click here. Registration for the Doerr Institute’s spring offerings opens Dec. 5.