Problems with IU's leadership structure prompted the largest set of administrative changes in IU history last month. Last week, IU President Adam Herbert took another step in fixing leadership problems.\nHerbert announced Feb. 3 the IU Leadership Development Project -- or "LeaD" for short -- a program aimed at training potential academic and administrative leaders. Thirty participants, including professors from all eight IU campuses, will attend two full-day sessions each month and learn about leadership and management techniques.\n"LeaD really shows the University's serious commitment to leadership development," said participant Matthew Auer, professor and director of Undergraduate Programs at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. "Whether we are talking about faculty, staff or students, we can't expect leaders to emerge spontaneously. Formal leadership development is a no-brainer."\nThe leadership seminars will cover a wide range of topics, including financial policy and management, dispute resolution, marketing, branding and other management strategies.\nAnother participant, SPEA professor and editor at the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management David Reingold, said the program is a good way for future leaders to network.\n"The content of the professional development training will be useful for those who have not had much experience running large public organizations," he said. "They will get a chance to understand the challenges and dilemmas leaders face when trying to oversee large and complex organizations."\nHerbert said in an IU press release he hopes the program can help identify and develop IU's future leaders. He added that the program's participants all have leadership potential and should take the program as an opportunity to better their management skills.\nThe seminar program was designed by a group of management specialists and IU leaders. There is also an "oversight group" made up of former IU senior officials who will advise the project.\nThough the program is intended to develop IU's future leaders, Reingold said IU will need to actually use those receiving training in leadership positions.\n"For this effort to be successful and taken seriously by participants, the administration needs to make sure that this training is tied to actual opportunities to assume leadership positions in the University," Reingold said. "Leadership development is a worthy goal for any organization, but participants will take it much more seriously if the administration actually starts to populate leadership positions across IU with those that have been through this training."\nHerbert proposed the project to the IU board of trustees in September 2005. Deans of some of IU's colleges and schools nominated professors for the special training, which is scheduled to begin this month and will continue through the end of 2006.
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