Patricia Skeen: Leading Peers

Patricia Skeen, a well-respected full professor at a prestigious business school at a major university, has accepted the role of chairing the school's important Academic Design and Delivery Committee (ADDC). During the week she was given to think about the role and to come to a decision, she gave some serious thought to how she wanted to lead her peers in such an endeavor. In this case, students are asked to engage in a similar reflective mode, identifying the commitments and to-do list with which they would undertake this, or any other similar, important task. The setting is simply one where the protagonist must lead from a collegial position absent any budget, any personnel decision-making authority, or an official title/position other than serving one term as committee chair and as an on-going colleague. This case is suitable for an undergraduate- or graduate-level introductory course on leadership and/or teams. The case provides an opportunity for students to consider the leadership qualities of those that they have observed when leading peers, their own prior experience leading groups of peers, and then synthesize and crystallize their own best thinking on how they would subsequently want to approach their next opportunity for leading peers. The case is fairly open-ended, thus galvanizing students' reflective thinking and refinement of their shared perspectives.

• Leadership
• Teams
• Decision making