LeaderCORE™ FAQs

LeaderCORE (Certification of Readiness and Excellence) is a comprehensive certification program spanning the entire two years of the University at Buffalo MBA experience. LeaderCORE gives students the opportunity to study and navigate real-world business situations while developing a set of clearly identified management competencies that differentiate student accomplishments and lead to effective performance in the workplace.

The driving force behind LeaderCORE is a focus on core competencies considered vital by the business community for effective performance and successful leadership. These competencies are organized into three key leadership dimensions with integrity as a unifying value, as illustrated at right.

Coaches do not have formal authority in a hierarchical sense. The relationship is voluntary on the part of both parties. However, it is expected that coaches will be influential with the students, in both supporting and recognizing developmental progress and constructively confronting issues that are hindering progress.   The lack of progress may involve difficult discussions with the student. If the issue is not resolved by the student (with the coach’s help), or the issue warrants consideration as to whether continued participation in LeaderCORE is appropriate, coaches should involve one of the LeaderCORE team, Nick Everest or Jaimie Falzarano.

The assigned coach, the LeaderCORE team and the second year quality assurance individual, will have access to the log. Two assessors will also review the student's log, as part of the certification process. We expect the student to reflect and write deeply about their developmental journey. In turn, all parties mentioned above are aware, and will respect, the potential sensitive nature of some log entries. 

There is no policy-it is up to each coach. Some coaches accept this sort of invitation, unless there is a good reason not to, but do not initiate the link. You may want to draw the line at Facebook ‘friending’ as this moves the relationship beyond the work-focused, professional network arena.

It is important that the coach is always honest with student, thereby modeling several elements of the LeaderCORE model. The judgment call is how the honesty is delivered. For example, it may be helpful to first understanding how the student views the issue, pay attention to the student’s preferred way of receiving feedback, how much feedback they can take on board in one discussion and so on.  If the student is not meeting LeaderCORE expectations, it is important that they understand why and the reasons behind it. The student should agree to a recovery plan with you. You might, in the early days of the relationship, signify that the students can expect you to be honest and straightforward in your feedback. You should in return, expect the same.

There are two approaches that you might use. The first is to model reflection by telling them a specific story from your own experience about how you used reflection to help you learn and develop from a particular situation. The second is to walk the student step-by-step through reflecting on one of their recent experiences, perhaps using the log entry that you thought lacked reflection. Few students arrive with the reflection habit firmly ingrained and there is usually little encouragement to use the skill in the world of work. It is important, therefore, to support the student in developing this career enhancing skill.

The format for the coaching session is dependent on your preferred style and the needs of the student. The outcome needs to be that the student is helped, and feels helped, towards achieving their LeaderCORE objectives. There is no set ‘script’ or structure, although you will probably want to have an outline  plan for the meeting, having prepared in advance, e.g. by reading the latest development logs and identifying the most important pieces of feedback and any questions. Like any effective dialogue, the session is likely to have its twists and turns and there are more angles to how the student is progressing than completion of development logs. The role of the coach includes keeping the exchanges productive and heading towards a good outcome, including the identification of, and agreement to, any follow-up actions. Your judgment will invariably be a good guide to making the exchanges effective. If you would like any assistance in preparing for a coaching session, please reach out to Nick Everest or Jaimie Falzarano.

We ask that you meet students on the North Campus, unless there is an agreement to meet elsewhere (e.g. the student might ask for a change of scenery).   For coaches not located on the North Campus, students are able to reserve private breakout rooms on the third floor of Alfiero through the Career Resource Center.  

We periodically ask a cross-section of students about their experience of being coached.  While every student (and coach) is different, some themes consistently emerge from the feedback.   The students appreciate a coach who:

• is genuinely interested in the student and their progress in LeaderCORE;
• takes an interest in developing a relationship beyond the minimum expectations and is aware of the student’s overall MBA experience, career plans etc.
• enters into the coaching session with a plan/process:

                -- can bridge between detail in the log and the ‘big picture’ of overall progress;

                -- allocates reasonable time for each session (30-45 minutes);

                -- provides helpful, constructive, detailed feedback and agrees the student’s follow-up actions (as appropriate);

• recognizes that the students have a packed, “deliverable”-heavy schedule;
• does their very best to keep to agreed coaching sessions;
• is reasonably accessible, if needed, in between scheduled coaching sessions;
• who understands the LeaderCORE program, e.g. milestones, the logging process, how certification works.

The first step is to ask why. Is it an issue of skill (“I am not sure how to”) or will (“too busy/I don’t see the point”)? If it is the former, then coaching will help. If it is the latter you might choose to agree on a new specific date by which the student will have completed x number of entries and go from there. The current logging requirements are as follows: proficient/superior/role model, 40/45/50. If neither approach works, you should inquire as to whether, from the student’s perspective, LeaderCORE is a good fit.  If you reach this stage, please consult with the LeaderCORE team.

All students received feedback on 1-3 of their first five logs from Nick, Jaimie or the LeaderCORE Student Assistant, Kelly Quinn.  Additionally, we have put together a small group of high quality logging second year MBA students that will review one to two logs from logs 5-10 and 10-15.  A blank quality assurance form is available for the coaches to see.  Both the student and coach will receive the log reviews for logs 5-15.  

The number of behavioral indicators needs to match the breadth and depth of the narrative. If the description of the learning event is rich and detailed, then it is reasonable to expect more than one competence to be identified and more than one behavioral indicator per competence. We have come across examples of a sparse narrative (“Attended Indian night and had some interesting conversations.”) that generated multiple competencies.  The feedback for this example is to expand the narrative. Equally, we have seen ‘under-cooked’ log entries where a major learning event, thoughtfully detailed, resulted in only one competence.   On occasions you may even suggest that one learning event, be split into two log entries given the richness of the narrative. More than four competencies should be regarded as the exception, not the norm.  The average will be two to three competencies.  There is no right answer to the “how many” question, but coaches quickly develop a sense of matching the narrative to the competence/behavioral ‘scorecard’. One helpful criterion is to ask whether the entry is coherent if viewed by a third party who does not have the benefit of the student providing additional commentary.

Generally, coaches should decide on how much emphasis to place on grammar and spelling, taking into account if English is a second language. Part of the coaching input could well be to address this issue. Was the student in a rush, or are their writing skills poor? Effective written communication is a LeaderCORE competence. It would be inadvisable for a student to submit an error-strewn set of development logs as part of the certification process.

* if you choose a behavioral indicator, the development log counts it, even if the student did not demonstrate the behavior.

One problem that was noticed early on from student feedback was reluctance to see things that “went wrong” as relevant to learning and development. At orientation it is stressed to students that there is often profound learning when a ‘failure’ is followed by effective reflection, learning and adaptation. The students are therefore encouraged to include learning from things that did not work out well, in their development logs. This also helps to avoid implying that risk aversion is a desirable attribute and that students should always “play it safe” with their development. If, over the first, say, ten log entries there are nine tales of ‘failure’, then that should be constructively confronted, but the ability to learn from things that didn’t work well should be encouraged.

For recording purposes in the development log, where the student is logging about a ‘failure’, the narrative should include specifics of what was learned and what the student will do when faced with similar circumstances again. The student may or may not exhibit one or multiple competencies. If the student exhibits any of the competencies, then they should go ahead and fill out the entire log. However, if the student did not exhibit any competencies (even if they understand what they could have done after the fact, etc.) then they should fill out the narrative section only and complete a subsequent log entry when they successfully apply the particular competence/behavioral indicator.

Please contact one of the LeaderCORE team members, Nick Everest or Jaimie Falzarano.