The touchstone engineering leadership development program

Abstract

Great engineering leaders require more than great technical skills. The legendary president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, Father Theodore Hesburgh, has spoken of a vision of leadership based on "three C's:" competence, commitment, and compassion. The Mayor of South Bend, the city where that university resides, speaks of leadership through engagement, "where talent meets purpose." The Touchstone Engineering Leadership program at the University of Notre Dame seeks to deliver on these visions of leadership though a partnership between the College of Engineering, the College of Business, and the Center for Social Concerns, along with the City of South Bend Department of Public Works and other community stakeholders. The name "Touchstone" refers to the strong and recurring role that the University plays throughout the lives of students and alumni, as well as the role that it plays in the cultural and economic life of the surrounding community. The program has three distinct yet interrelated curricular offerings, each targeted towards participants at different levels of experience and mastery of leadership skills that draw from a common skills inventory and set of core values. These offerings are as follows: • Leadership Enhancements to Existing Undergraduate Courses: Project-based first-year engineering courses and senior capstone design courses have been enhanced to include leadership modules with the goal of introducing skills to make project teams more effective. A key focus is the role of self-awareness in effective leadership (and followership). While these projects may have external stakeholders, project scope is still largely academic in nature. Students are expected to progress from a novice to apprentice level of mastery of leadership skills. • Engineering Undergraduate Executive Education through Community Engagement: Select undergraduate students comprising largely the leadership of engineering student organizations are invited to participate in this intensive program, aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of these organizations and the leadership skills of their members. The curriculum of this program is based on the Stayer Executive Education program of the Mendoza College of Business, adapted to the "undergraduate executive" context. As part of this program, the undergraduate engineering organizations are encouraged to "bid" on community projects suggested by the South Bend Department of Public Works to apply both technical and leadership skills. These projects have a broader range of stakeholders and more complex constraints than typical academic projects, and participants are expected to progress from an apprentice to journeyman level of mastery of leadership skills. • Continuing Executive Engineering Leadership Education: This offering is designed to support alumni and other engineering professions through key leadership transitions throughout their careers as the progress toward a master skill level of leadership. Offered as fee-based two-day workshops held on campus, these programs include networking with students in the undergraduate executive leadership program, and also help financially support the undergraduate offerings. Outcomes over the first two years of this program include enhancements to existing courses reaching over 500 students, undergraduate executive education programs with over 50 students, and continuing education for alumni and others with over 15 students.