Leading the "Field"
October 29, 2009
Richard Field
When McCalla Award winner Richard Field teaches, he may not be wearing a backpack and cleated hiking books, but he is definitely leading the way for students to follow. “They’ve paid for this trip and it’s not about me. I’m the guide,” he said.
During his very well-received leadership skills courses, recently introduced in the MBA and EMBA revised curriculum, he splits students into different working teams in every class and poses a new question for them to work on.
“A guide would say ‘Today we’re climbing that rock face,’ but in class I’ll get them to talk about a topic, hear each other and themselves, and see other people’s reactions. It’s practical because they get to try working with a group and improve their critical thinking skills,” said Richard. “If there is a right or wrong, they have to build it for themselves.”
The purpose of the course is to increase students’ understanding of leadership roles and their skills in exercising those roles. These include team building, mentoring, managing conflict, delegating, managing participative decision making, creative problem solving, and time and stress management.
MBAs take the course at the very beginning of their program as a way to redefine themselves after coming from a career, whereas Leadership Skills is offered to the Executive MBA students at the end of their degree as a way to help them define their next goals.
Many students are generous with their praise of Richard’s class.
“I felt almost lost in a way within the work world, wondering if anyone had the same outlook as me on how a leader should behave and what the word leadership really meant,” said Jon Cummings, who started his MBA part-time in 2008. “I took away so many key lessons from this course and it has really inspired me to continue with my studies. It has really made an impact with me.”
Amar Elsafadi, MBA ’09, said the Leadership Skills course was time well spent. “This was the class that nobody wanted to miss,” he said, adding hopefully he and his classmates would make Richard proud in the future.
Richard said students in the MBA and EMBA programs are looking to be better, at work and within themselves, but most people cannot make personal change without help.
“You can’t just decide to be a better person. I challenge them, ask questions and give them tools,” said Richard. “It’s meant to be fun because I want to capture their imagination and attention but at the end the students have changed.”
He described his role as students ask themselves ‘Am I the person I want to be?’ as the one to shoulder the load partway for them while they climb. “When they finish the class, they’ve changed. They carry on and get the big jobs and are successful.”
McCalla Professorship awarded
As part of Richard’s interest in the process of learning, he received a McCalla Professorship award for the 2009/2010 year, giving him the opportunity to explore and implement strategies integrating his research and teaching.
Richard will use the award to disseminate the teaching of ideas, through researching more about the accreditation process from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which gives seminars on proving that students are learning.
The Alberta School of Business is the first and longest accredited business school in Canada. Forbes Magazine has described AACSB international accreditation as the “gold standard of business school accreditation.”
Because the School must be re-accredited every five years, there are certain guidelines and measurements that must be adhered to.
“You can’t just assume, ‘We taught, therefore, they learned,’ because we test them and mark them,” said Richard. “Accrediting bodies provide standards for thousands of students. The AACSB wants a set of procedures – they want learning goals in every syllabus.”
To put it simply, he said there needs to be a way to measure the difference in learning between the day students walk in and the day they graduate. “They also want the Alberta School of Business to know its goals, which will flow to the courses and syllabi and that flows into what happens in the classroom and then comes the assurance of learning.”
The McCalla Professorships, named after the first Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, are nominated by their faculty. They are outstanding academics who have made significant contributions to their field of research, teaching and learning. The awards provide funding for teaching release, and research and teaching initiatives.
About the Alberta MBA
The Alberta MBA is built on Alberta tradition: great ideas, hard work and outstanding people. A host of degree options, coupled with small class sizes, an applied hands-on learning style, and close ties to nearly 20,000 alumni and the business community, translate into incredible opportunities for our students.
The 2009 Financial Times of London MBA rankings released in January showed the Alberta MBA placed at an all-time high of 77th globally, up 11 places from last year’s high of 88th. The Alberta MBA was tops in Canada for value for money, career progress and aims achieved. The Financial Times ranked the University of Alberta/University of Calgary Executive MBA (EMBA) program number 36 in its international ranking of 95 EMBA programs released in October. The prestigious Financial Times of London is the world’s leading benchmark for business school rankings.
For further information, contact:
Monica Wegner
Communications Strategist
Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta
780.492.7996
monica.wegner@ualberta.ca