Lawrence Greenspun
As an essential part of the program, ESTEEM graduate students get an in-depth look at leadership and decide what kind of leader they want to be. Lawrence Greenspun, an Adjunct Assistant Professional Specialist teaches a one-credit course on Leadership that includes theories, leadership profiles, a survey of literature from the field of effective leadership, and guest lectures from accomplished leaders to help students define their own leadership strategies.
"My goal is to provoke the students into creating an individualized perspective on leadership,” says Greenspun, the director of public sector engagement for the California-based Drucker Institute, named for the pioneer management consultant and educator Peter Drucker whose ideas are in the course. “I help the students take a look at effective leadership through several lenses.”
The theory-and-practice approach reflects what he has seen in ESTEEM, says Greenspun, who serves as a volunteer with enFocus, a nonprofit innovation organization in South Bend started with civic and business leaders by ESTEEM leaders and graduates.
“The course creates a process wherein students who come in with great skills and talents apply insights gained to become more effective leaders,” he says. “Talent and intelligence will take you so far, but at some point the students need to put them into practice.”
As a closing process for this course, students select and elucidate a specific leadership approach for themselves, though the implementation comes after graduation.
“The application is something they’ll have to do going forward in their careers,” Greenspun says. “They develop a model of effective leadership and how they are going to put it into practice in this course. They graduate and, we hope, become the types of leaders they envisioned.”