By: Professor Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Suffolk University Law School

In January of 2021, the University of Illinois College of Law launched its Leadership Project, a leadership development program for our students. In Leadership is about relationships, including listening, adapting, and learning from others. This September, I had the privilege to spend two weeks in Finland, teaching Global Leadership for Lawyers at Turku Law School, where I feel I learned just as much as my students. The class of fifteen students included students from Finland as well as numerous exchange students, representing six different countries: Finland, Germany, France, China, Czech Republic, and Taiwan (seven countries if you count the professor was from the United States). Students worked in groups of three; each group had students from different countries sharing their different perspectives, experiences, and cultures. Conversations, self-reflections, and collaborations about leading self, leading others, and leading change, challenged all of us in the class to think more deeply about what it means to lead in a global profession. We reconsidered our assumptions about global leadership as we explored similarities and differences through a comparative lens. For example, some students spoke of cultures rooted in hierarchy and competition, while others described cultures that prioritized collaboration and consensus. Some shared cultural values that emphasized time and task completion while others prioritized relationship building and well-being (having the course in Finland, we discussed why Finland is ranked the happiest country in the world). We also examined how culture can affect communication, conflict styles, and difficult conversations.

Through diagnostics, journals, case studies, group presentations, and a final reflection paper, students learned a great deal about themselves, their own culture, other cultures, and how it all affects leadership. By sharing their experiences across cultures, the course enhanced their leadership skills and their cultural competence. The experience illustrated how cultural competence is at the heart of leadership education, not an optional part of it. The experience highlighted the pedagogical value of situating leadership education within a transnational context instead of in the abstract, where students bring authentic engagement and varied perspectives to discussions of law and leadership. While I had taught internationally before, I had never had so many students from different countries in one class together, which really enriched the cross-cultural dialogue. Students reflected that after the course, they viewed leadership in a new way and felt more prepared and motivated to take on new challenges to lead in a complex, global world. They noted that the lessons and tools they learned in the course would help them in their studies, the legal profession, and their life in the future.

This course almost did not happen, which reminds me of another leadership lesson I learned from this experience regarding growth v. fixed mindset, grit, and resilience. In the course, students completed a closed door/open door exercise where they reflected on a prior setback or closed door they had experienced and then discussed how another door opened. It helped students reframe how they viewed failure and increased their appreciation for where they are now. Well, now I will share my closed door/open door experience regarding this course. I was thrilled to be placed on the Fulbright Specialist roster and had applied and planned with the University of Turku to teach this course as a Fulbright Specialist award. I had aligned the timing of my sabbatical with the dates for this course in Finland. The U.S. State Department, however, did not provide final approval of this Fulbright placement. I felt deep disappointment when this door closed. But, thanks to the support of both the University of Turku and my home institution, we moved forward independent of the Fulbright program and the experience proved to be transformative for both me and my students. It’s a good reminder that embracing a new path or different perspective can lead to great growth, for our students and ourselves.