By Arial Starks
Associate Professor of the Practice of Business Studies and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Patrick Leddin led a Vanderbilt Executive Education short program in April, teaching business professionals about the best and most impactful leadership tactics. Jamie Leddin, Lecturer, Vanderbilt School of Arts and Sciences, also joined Patrick in teaching the course titled Five Practices of an Impactful Leader. The inspiration for the program’s curriculum came to Patrick Leddin after several years of him traveling and observing leaders around the world.
“As I’ve traveled around the world and studied some of the best leaders out there, I watched what they were doing, and no matter the organizations they were a part of, I started to notice that they would repeat some of the same behaviors,” Leddin said. “When I started to study and organize those behaviors, it became clear that those behaviors fell into five – what I call impactful leader practices.”
Over the course of the 2-day program, participants learned many concepts including what drives them as leaders, how their mindsets influence their leadership, and how to be the best, impactful leader possible. Business professionals reported walking away from the experience feeling more equipped to lead effectively.
“As we went through the exercises, Patrick and Jamie encouraged us to write down specific tasks by each of the 5 Practices,” shared participant Greg Kelly, Sr. Purchasing Manager, Nissan North America.“ In the near term, my intention is to follow up on each action I identified. I believe these actions will help to make an immediate impact on my current role and apply what we learned throughout the course.”
Leddin intentionally chose the topic of impact for this program to help the class start thinking more about their individual roles and purposes within the organizations they are a part of, and in turn get closer to achieving their leadership goals.
“The impactful piece is important because at the end of the day, to varying degrees, we all want to know that the work that we did mattered,” Leddin said. “People want to know that they didn’t just hold a place in an organization, but actually left behind a legacy based on the work they did, but more importantly, a legacy grounded in ‘look who I lifted up’ versus ‘look what I did’.”
Kelly says he participated in this program to learn tips and techniques for how to be an effective leader, and he left the class with a breadth of knowledge he will take with him for the rest of his career.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and lose sight of the big picture i.e. purpose, goals, and people,” Kelly said. “This program made me think about my leadership legacy, and how what I do today will impact how that legacy will be perceived.”
Learn more about upcoming Executive Education short programs.
