An evaluation of the processes by which students develop their leadership and management skills and the paradigms that they hold was completed at the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University. Student papers on the subject of leadership and management were analyzed to identify leadership traits most important to construction students. The most common traits that the students identified as needed by good leaders are communication skills, the ability to empower and delegate, trust and respect, ethics and morality, and people skills, in that order. A "living lab" was developed to determine when and how students develop their understanding of leadership traits. It was concluded that more than approximately 70% of the influences that define a student's understanding of good leadership skills occur prior to college attendance. This paper presents the processes used for the evaluation and some observations based on student responses. The job of the faculty, therefore, is build upon that understanding, building confidence and opening new avenues, expanding areas of interest, and raising student expectations.
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Badger et al. (2005) studied this question.