Blackburn Institute

Past Events

Student Leadership Assessment

September 2011

In mid–September, several Blackburn Students and staff had the unique opportunity to participate in a leadership assessment evaluation administered by Leigh Covington of Chesapeake Consulting, Inc. After completing a detailed questionnaire, Ms. Covington gathered with the participants on campus and presented each of them with reports detailing their behavioral characteristics, leadership style, ideal careers and optimal work environment. The assessment sparked a productive discussion on divergent leadership styles, and how those styles affect how we respond to problems and challenges, how we attempt to influence others, and how we respond to a changing environment.

Two new Students, Genie Smith and Carolyn Bero, speak from the perspective of students who have participated in the assessment, offering a testimony to the survey’s usefulness and importance:

“The Leadership Assessment offered our new Blackburn class a great opportunity not only to understand more about ourselves and our leadership style, but also to engage in discussions that enabled us to get to know each other better on an individual basis. It was eye opening to read an analysis of myself and see my complex personality illustrated in words. I quickly became aware of personal characteristics that I had never even thought about before this time. As we all learned more about ourselves, we also learned more about each other. We participated in activities that urged us to work together as teams to solve the problems we examined in a case study analysis. This led to deliberative dialogue. In small groups of about four or five people, we discovered how to come together as a team, use our different strengths effectively, and communicate respectfully. This leadership workshop ultimately provided us all a chance to join together and learn more about ourselves, each other, and appreciate the diverse personalities we all bring to the Blackburn Institute as a community.”

-Genie Smith

  “I found the Leadership Assessment Program to be a very enlightening experience. Having my leadership style analyzed in-depth definitely brought my own particular attributes and motivation for involvement in various organizations to my attention. For me, I do believe this will help me address the areas in which I can grow as a leader, and help me determine the best manner in which I can help in achieving a goal. Because the information all seemed somewhat overwhelming at first, having the report explained greatly helped increase my understanding of how these assessments work.”

-Carolyn Bero