ERCEGI

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• Champion Zones: Building Organizational Capacity
• Jacksonville University: Leadership & Learning
• Environmental Responsibility: Service Learning Initiative

Jacksonville University: Leadership & Learning

This project is still in the planning stages. Its basic design is the delivery of a Masters of Leadership & Learning at Jacksonville University that will allow for school-based and community-based leaders to master key skills and learn of best practices and resources for being an effective leader with an emphasis on Social Intelligence Leadership (SIL). “Social intelligence, commonly referred to as people skills, is the ability to relate to, understand, and interact effectively with others on a daily basis. Leaders with high social intelligence consistently display the communication and interpersonal skills that are critical for influencing internal and external business partners and for gaining commitment to challenging goals. A recent Chief Executive magazine survey of 750 senior leaders confirmed that people skills were the most important drivers of leadership success at both the CEO and executive team levels. Unfortunately, the importance and development of these skills often are overlooked as leaders climb the organizational ladder. This lack of social intelligence in an organization’s upper-leadership levels not only contributes to senior leadership failure but also escalates employee turnover, erodes commitment to the goals, and hinders organizational performance” (http://www.ddiworld.com/learninglinks).

The indirect mission of this endeavor is to build local capacity for more quality formal and informal learning environments from the outside-in as the attainment of this degree will support community empowerment strategies by generating higher quality leadership in all sectors. The ultimate goal is to improve the wellbeing of the surrounding community; and by so doing increase student achievement.

ERCEGI is engaged two-fold. First, we will work with the JU staff to procure funding for a pilot cohort that will be recruited from a specific geographic area with the intent of gathering baseline data on the organizations that each lead or will potentially lead and on that person’s base leadership skills. Secondly, ERCEGI will handle the baseline research, data collection, and evaluations to track the changes from the person level, organization level, and the community impact level. The project will follow the cohort through a seven-year longitudinal study to assess the effectiveness of leadership development and social intelligence to build local capacity to improve neighborhoods and communities.