Preparing Students for Leadership through Experiential Learning Open Access

This Application Brief highlights Seattle University’s Red Winged Leadership (RWL) exercise, an innovative curriculum for graduate business leadership education. RWL requires students to apply course materials to a visible and challenging class project, and to critically examine and recognize leadership in the broader community. Both allow for development and execution of problem solving, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills necessary to lead successfully. Students are given an opportunity to develop self-awareness of their leadership style, practice how to be an effective leader, use interpersonal skills to manage relationships, design a team structure, and execute a project. We recommend that instructors use the RWL asa template for graduate students to bridge the transition from learning leadership theories to applying them.