The Leadership Launchpad course will be held via Zoom starting Sept. 5. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

In his role as director of the Executive Education Program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, John Palmer is always thinking of new ways to help the next generation of business leaders in the area get a leg up on the competition, and he felt this fall was the right time for a new offering.

“What we’ve seen in the market when it comes to leadership development training is there seems to be a lot out there for senior-level leaders,” he said. “But there is much less when you start looking at programs for early stage and middle-career leaders, people who want to discover their leadership skills, start to build a social network and get one-on-one coaching.”

And Palmer knew the perfect person to teach this new course, which is offered through the College of Business Administration: Cindy Goodwin-Sak.

“She has extensive experience as a senior-level manager with a number of different firms over the years,” Palmer said. “She’s very a well-known, well-respected consultant in the St. Louis business community. She has a Doctor of Business Administration degree from UMSL, and she has a really good understanding of the university and the students.”

With a general idea for the course in place, Goodwin-Sak and Palmer talked about the best specific approach, and that’s how they came up with Leadership Launchpad. The online course offers six sessions – classes meet on Zoom from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursdays from Sept. 5 to Nov. 14 – targeted toward young professionals looking to become managers for the first time, or those looking to take that first big step up in management.

“It’s all very practical, applicable skills,” Goodwin-Sak said. “I’ve taught similar stuff to other groups, and they have found it just immediately applicable. It’s not theoretical. It’s hands-on. The goal is to teach a skill and then have you go try it because that’s how you learn, by practicing.”

The course also includes a one-on-one coaching session to help the student set career goals and an in-person networking event at the end of the course.

“In-person networking is amazing because it accelerates the bonds between us, accelerates trust,” Goodwin-Sak said. “When you look someone in the eyes, it changes things. I’m passionate about in-person networking, but not everybody can do that. We want to make sure that we teach people also how to build networks virtually because it is a critical skill as well, especially now.”

As Palmer pointed out, this isn’t just for business professionals or students.

“No matter what academic area students have a background in,” Palmer said, “when they get into a job or get transferred or get promoted into a new position, they’re going to need those leadership skills, those professional networking skills and other abilities that go along with being effective leaders.”

The time this course is offered – around the lunch hour – is an attempt to keep evenings clear for young professionals who might have families. With kids of her own, Goodwin-Sak understands the value of an uninterrupted dinnertime at home.

“It’s a hypothesis, right?” she said. “We’re going to find out from the students if it’s right or not, but the idea is that students might be able to break away for a lunch rather than in the evening. Part of what we’re trying to teach for long-term career strategy is boundaries and building in an integrated life rather than having to always give up your personal life or your professional life. We’re trying to find ways for people to grow and learn and keep the family life in the evening.”

The course Goodwin-Sak will teach this fall, which relies on a mix of her experiences and what she’s learned reading her extensive library of business and leadership books, is different than one she might have taught five years ago.

“Especially for the next generation of leaders, the roles and responsibilities and daily life are changing,” Goodwin-Sak said. “I wanted to look at leadership skills that maybe people don’t get as part of the Master of Business Administration. What are the practical skills? What are the things that will really help them get ahead as a complement to the more traditional education.”

Goodwin-Sak finished her MBA at UMSL in 2012, and she knew that was just the beginning of her connection to the university.

“That was such an amazing experience, and that’s why I went back and got my doctorate at UMSL,” she said. “It was great, and the instructors were amazing. It was a really good experience.”

She completed her DBA in 2022. Preparing to teach this course has coincided with another exciting venture for Goodwin-Sak – writing her book, “Your Career Resilience Blueprint: A Tactical Guide to Navigate Change, Overcome Obstacles, and Design Your Future.” The Kindle version went live mid-August, and the paperback was released at the end of the month.

“I give a lot of career advice to executives or managers who feel stuck in their careers, and they’re trying to figure out how to navigate their careers, so I wrote a book that essentially is most of the advice that I give people,” she said.

There’s even homework, just like with Leadership Launchpad.

“I’ve been in tech for 25 years, and there are a lot of layoffs in tech right now, and there was a big one in February that impacted a lot of friends of mine,” Goodwin-Sak said. “The number of them that had not built their networks, that were caught by surprise, was just devastating to me. So this is a way for me to try to reach out and give them a guide before they get into trouble, before they end up in that spot where they have the rug pulled out from under them.”

Both Palmer and Goodwin-Sak agree, the course this fall is not designed as a one-and-done situation.

“Talking with John about how we want to evolve the program, what we want to do is we want to start with teaching a set of skills and create a learning environment,” Goodwin-Sak said. “And we want to learn from our students in a way that we can offer them a second class, a second cohort that builds on the first one, with the idea being that we may end up with a community that supports each other. The idea is that we’re building a foundation long term, a community of students who are not only learning from us, but as they learn, they’re giving to the next cohort. We’re trying to create a community and a culture of learning and giving back to each other.”