Leadership @ UW supports a growing community of leadership practitioners, including students, faculty and staff, who are applying the UW-Madison Leadership Framework in a wide variety of contexts.
Student Resources
As a student leader, our Leadership Framework and leadership theories can help inform how you continue defining your leadership style, work with others, and make an impact in your communities. Below is a list of leadership theory resources and its use to help transform your leadership experiences. There are also listed examples of leadership programs on campus, so you can get involved and to help you think about how to transform your organizations.
- Programs: A small list of impactful programs that are intimately using the Leadership Framework.
- Using Leadership Theory: A toolkit of resources that created the Leadership Framework and how they might be helpful for you.
Faculty & Staff Resources
As someone involved in leadership development, whether by title or responsibilities, our Leadership Framework and leadership theories can help you effectively think about how to affect student leadership development, engage your employees in their professional development, or transform your unit.
We have listed leadership theory resources and its use to help transform your leadership development experiences. These resources are helpful in training and workshop design, curriculum design, and program creation. We have listed examples of ways you can learn more about leadership development, as well as how other partners in our community have effectively implemented our Leadership Framework.
- Examples: A small list of impactful programs that are intimately using the Leadership Framework.
- Programs: A small list of programs to engage in your own leadership development.
- Using Leadership Theory: A toolkit of resources that created the Leadership Framework and how they might be helpful for you.
Successful Framework Implementation Story
Read about how Rec Well utilized the Leadership Framework in their Annual Onboarding.
Using Leadership Theory
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Authentic Leadership
What is this?
This theory describes ways to be yourself as a leader, so others know about your true intentions and how genuine you are as a person. By using this theory, you could reflect on your values and intentions and see how to build relationships with your peers.
How does it help me?
- By reflecting on yourself and your own behaviors, you can act more like your true self.
- Acting authentically overall helps build your own leadership development.
- By understanding yourself, you can learn how to build shared goals with other people.
How do I use it?
- Engage in self-reflection like keeping a journal and thinking about what you are passionate about.
- Join a student organization that can help you self-reflect, like the ones listed below for students.
- If you are a student leader, help your organization members engage in reflection through ice-breaker activities and getting feedback.
Resource Link
Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 315-338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.001
Collaborative Leadership
What is this?
Instead of leading alone, through this model, you can learn about how to work with your peers and valuing their skills in groups. By using this theory, you can develop key leadership behaviors in order to work effectively with others and build strong relationships.
How does it help me?
- By relying on collaborative behaviors rather than your title or position, your peers will be more willing to work with you.
- Since many workplaces are becoming virtual or more horizontal, this theory can teach you how to be effective in those environments.
- Using collaborative behaviors can help you gain the trust of your peers and create a culture of respect.
How do I use it?
- When working on a group project, engage in conversations and planning that allow everyone to share their ideas to create goals.
- When creating your student organization and thinking of your mission, make sure to write down and display the values and mission you all create together.
- When working on a project, make sure everyone understands what their role is and how they can contribute.
Resource Link
Kramer, M. W., & Crespy, D. A. (2011). Communicating collaborative leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(5), 1024-1037. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.07.021
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
What is this?
Emotional intelligence can help you think about how your leadership behaviors can formulate your future actions as a leader, the experiences of the people around you, and how you might change your actions depending on the situation you are in. By understanding how your behaviors are affected by your context, your self, and others, you can be more effective in your leadership.
How does it help me?
- Understanding your context, self, and others helps you be more exact about the ways you would like to lead.
- Understanding that leadership is based on our actions can help you move past needing to have a title or position to make an impact.
- Using this theory can help you discover the different ways you can enact change.
How do I use it?
- Engage in a reflective activity like StrengthsFinder of Myers-Briggs to better understand your primary behaviors in situations.
- Not every situation in a project will be perfect and you might encounter frustration. Make sure that when working with others that everyone has an opportunity to share feedback.
- When working with groups, make sure there are opportunities for people to get to know each other through social events and fun games.
Resource Link
Allen, S. J., Shankman, M. L., & Miguel, R. F. (2012). Emotionally intelligent leadership: An integrative, process-oriented theory of student leadership. Journal of Leadership Education, 11(1), 177–203. https://doi.org/10.12806/V11/I1/TF1
Relational Leadership
What is this?
Using this model can help you increase the impact of your ideas by leveraging the power of groups to generate a vision of change together. You can learn to value building relationships that respect and trust group members in order to work effectively.
How does it help me?
- This theory teaches you to respect differing perspectives from yours and seeing the value in those perspectives.
- Like other theories in this toolkit, it also teaches you the value of building a shared vision with a group.
- Given its focus on social responsibility, it centers on how to act ethically, and respect other people in groups and communities.
How do I use it?
- Attend training or workshop that focuses on having difficult conversations with people or how to facilitate conversations.
- When making decisions for your student organization, create ways to share information about decisions with all members.
- Make sure that groups or projects you are a part of prioritize giving and receiving feedback.
Resource Link
Ferch, S. R., & Mitchell, M. M. (2001). Intentional forgiveness in relational leadership: A technique for enhancing effective leadership. Journal of Leadership Studies, 7(4), 70-83. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190100700406
Servant Leadership
What is this?
Instead of leading through a title or power, your peers might be inspired by your vision if they are willing to follow your vision because it serves a larger purpose. Servant leaders support and help the larger group instead of their personal goals to enact change.
How does it help me?
- By thinking by others rather than yourself first, your ideas of change can grow and therefore be more impactful.
- By acting as a servant leader, you can focus more on community based projects which can be more complex, interesting, and fulfilling.
- Using servant leadership can have you focus more on training and developing other people.
How do I use it?
- Consider becoming a peer mentor for a course or a student program so you can become a key part of your peer’s development.
- In order to make community-based change, it is important to understand community needs. Emphasize practicing your active listening skills to learn about others’ needs.
- Consider taking tutoring or teaching based courses and trainings to learn about how to grow other people.
Resource Link
Parris, D. L., & Peachey, J. W. (2013). A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(3), 377-393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1322-6
Situational Leadership
What is this?
When serving in a leadership position, you might notice that your peers all complete tasks and projects differently. By using this model, you can provide the right kind of support for your peers by enacting different styles of leadership.
How does it help me?
- Using this model can help you determine what kind of guidance to provide for other people.
- Since people can become more adept at finishing tasks, this model can help you determine when your peers are ready to work more independently.
- This is an easy model to interpret to quickly determine what kind of leadership style to enact.
How do I use it?
- Conduct a leadership style assessment like StrengthsFinder or Myers-Brigg with your student organization to learn about how people like to be led.
- When in a new position of leadership, have conversations with your peers about their preferred working style.
- Think about what goals you are trying to accomplish in a project in order to determine how to lead.
Resource Link
Graeff, C. L. (1997). Evolution of situational leadership theory: A critical review. The Leadership Quarterly, 8(2), 153-170. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(97)90014-X
Social Change Model of Leadership
What is this?
By focusing on making change, you can transform your leadership style by leading through values that you share with other people. By leading with community-created values, you can ensure everyone involved is committed to your shared idea of change.
How does it help me?
- Like the Emotionally Intelligent Leadership model, this allows you to see how values are shared and created within yourself, within a group, and for the larger community.
- This model combines other forms of leadership that are collaborative, which helps you learn how to effectively work with others.
- Its focus on change can help you think about your ultimate goal, which can build motivation to engage in a service project.
How do I use it?
- When designing the mission of your student organization, think about how the idea of change could be achieved through the efforts of your group.
- Integrate opportunities for community service or volunteering through your organization.
- Engage in volunteer events or community based internships to learn more about how change is implemented.
Resource Link
Wagner, W. (1996). The social change model of leadership: A brief overview. Leadership, 11, 8-10.
Systems Theory
What is this?
When joining a group or project, it can be difficult to make sense of how decisions are made, what roles people serve, and how to get things done. By using Systems Theory, you can begin to understand how organizations and groups work and come up with ideas on how to design your own groups.
How does it help me?
- Thinking of a group or organization as a system can help you understand responsibilites that are associated with a role.
- This theory can help you design a structure for your student organizations and projects to ensure ideas are completed effectively.
- By understanding the structure of a group or organization, you can better understand how to enact an idea or ask questions based on the power attributed to a position.
How do I use it?
- When beginning a project or creating a new organization, think about your goals and how the work to accomplish those goals can be distributed.
- When creating an organization, it can be helpful to design an organizational chart so everyone understands their roles and responsibilities.
- Try creating position descriptions for your organization and clearly delineate their tasks and responsibilities.
Resource Link
Schneider, M., & Somers, M. (2006). Organizations as complex adaptive systems: Implications of complexity theory for leadership research. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(4), 351-365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.04.006
Transformational Leadership
What is this?
By using this theory, you can tap into behaviors that can help inspire other people to follow your idea of change. This theory focuses on behaviors like charisma and care for others to convince groups of people to work with you.
How does it help me?
- Using this form of leadership instead of transactional leadership will make it more likely for others to follow your vision for change since you are using influence instead of fear or power to lead.
- Part of inspiring others means creating a vision with other people, so this theory can help you think about how to create goals with groups of people.
- Like servant leadership, the focus is on others rather than yourself, which can help you build stronger relationships with your peers.
How do I use it?
- Practice your leadership behaviors related to influence like building relationships with people, acting confidently, and using charisma to appeal to people’s interests.
- Focus your time on getting to know your peers and their values.
- Within your organizations, ask members what they are excited about or how they would like to innovate to see if that can be added to or modify the goals of your organization.
Resource Link
Bass, B. M. (1999). Two decades of research and development in transformational leadership. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(1), 9-32.
Tuckman's Stages of Group Development
What is this?
When entering a new team through a project or student organization, you may have noticed that your first couple of meetings together feel a bit awkward. This model can help you understand why communication might be happening a certain way and how you can help your team become stronger.
How does it help me?
- Having a way to identity why your team might be behaving a certain way can help you modify how you complete work together to ensure everyone feels included and happy.
- This model provides methods to ensure your team keeps working with consistent energy and feel supported.
- The model’s focus on feelings of team members allows you to quickly assess by looking at physical features like facial expressions.
How do I use it?
- When starting on a new team, having an orientation process can be useful so people understand expectations and goals.
- Make sure people have opportunities to share feedback and receive feedback.
- Establish team groundrules and agreements so people feel more willing to contribute ideas and engage in discussion.
Resource Link
Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group & Organization Studies, 2(4), 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960117700200404
Student Programs
Adventure Learning Programs
ALPs is a student organization that provides workshops to improve group dynamics and build community on campus. ALPs uses the UW-Madison Leadership Framework for 40 student facilitators to reflect on their leadership skills and to track their leadership growth over their tenure with the program. The framework gives facilitators terminology for writing resumes and interviewing.
Download ALPS Learning Outcomes Worksheet Example
Badger Volunteers
Badger Volunteers is a semester-long program that pairs teams of students with community organizations, volunteering 1-4 hours each week at the same organization. Centered around the leadership framework, students foster meaningful and consistent connections with community partners over the semester. Badger Volunteers provides logistical support, transportation, training and education sessions for student volunteers in the program.
Download BV Leader Values Example
Download BV Interview Screening Form Example
Download BV Leadership Competencies Activity Example
Leadership Certificate
The Leadership Certificate program reinforces the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s commitment to developing student leadership capacity through intentional reflection and engagement in learning both inside and outside the classroom, for the purpose of meaningful change. The Certificate marks a formal acknowledgement of student contributions and achievements.
Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC)
The Office of Student-Athlete Development is committed to inspiring, engaging, and advancing student-athletes outside of the athletic arena by providing programming and resources through four key pillars: Leadership & Involvement, Personal Development, Career Development, and Diversity & Inclusion. SAAC focuses on one of the 7 leadership competencies at each monthly meeting for its 50+ student members.
Wisconsin Engineering Student Council
This program integrates the UW-Madison Leadership Framework by providing engineering students the opportunity to take on leadership roles within the College of Engineering. The Council provides 2 or 3 leadership development focused sessions throughout each semester, and provides a mentor program to new engineering students to help them excel in future leadership roles.
All Campus Leadership Conference
Presented by the Student Leadership Program, this is the largest fully student-run event at UW-Madison, with an audience of approximately 900 individuals. This event is held annually in February, with 25 breakout sessions meeting one or more values or competencies of the UW-Madison Leadership Framework. The framework helps students focus on learning more about their leadership needs and interests.
Bucky’s Award Ceremony
This event spotlights excellence in individual and organizational leadership. The UW-Madison Leadership Framework serves as the rubric for the Outstanding Leadership Award. The Awards program recognizes 10 student organizations and 6 student leaders.
Queer Emerging Leaders Program
QUELP uses the framework’s Outcomes to structure a 13-week course focused on power, privilege, personal narrative, and community organizing. Participants support their own communities by working with organizational partners who serve LBGTQ+ people and needs.
Faculty & Staff Examples
UW-Madison Arboretum Earth Partnership Restoration
Restoration team leaders are an essential corps of land care volunteers at the Arboretum. They participate in ecological restoration by leading other volunteers from diverse backgrounds. Team leaders teach and supervise volunteers, practicing leadership and communications skills aligned with the UW-Madison Leadership Framework.
Wisconsin Area Health Education Center (AHEC)
Wisconsin AHEC’s statewide Community Health Internship Program is for students participating in community health internships in 49 sites throughout the state. In 2015, 25 mentors were trained in using the Leadership@UW Leadership Competency Assessment to guide 50 interns in leadership development over the 8-week summer program.
Digital Publishing and Printing Service
Employees of DoIT’s Digital Publishing and Printing Services office leans on the framework’s Values and Competencies to develop stretch and growth goals for themselves with management guidance. These intentional conversations have resulted in increased employee connections and commitment to their work.
UW-Madison School of Pharmacy
The School of Pharmacy integrates the UW–Madison Leadership Framework into its operations to create dynamic leadership outcomes for its students. The program emphasizes leadership development for clinical pharmacists as an action-oriented endeavor not based on formal authority positions, and will be used to make student pharmacists responsive to the context of each patient-system interaction.
Faculty & Staff Programs
Fully Prepared to Lead
Fully Prepared to Lead is a competency-based professional development program integrated with the UW-Madison Leadership Framework. The certificate program and courses are for UW-Madison employees looking to develop their leadership skills. By attending these courses, you will feel empowered to positively influence your work environment and recognize the personal leadership that you bring to your team.
University of Wisconsin Libraries
The mission of the UW-Madison Libraries is to support excellence in teaching, research and learning by providing resources, services and spaces that help to ensure the success of our students, faculty, and staff. Through meeting and dialoguing as small groups, we form deep trust where difficult questions can be asked, honest conversations are held, and personal and professional growth takes place.
Servant Leadership Certificate
This Continuing Studies program consists of the fundamentals of servant leadership, a self-assessment, community building, stewardship, and final presentation by participants on a reflective project of their choice. The program is targeted to aspiring leaders/managers in all organizational sectors.