Terps Football Coach Infuses Leadership and Teamwork Insight in MiM Course

As fall semester commences, a uniquely new twist to a core course is giving Smith students firsthand perspective from a Big Ten football coach.

Working with Associate Clinical Professor Sheetal Singh, Maryland Head Coach Michael Locksley is co-teaching a revised “Leadership and Teamwork” offering to about 60 students. It’s part of the Master of Science in Management Studies (MiM) Program at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

“The idea is to bring Coach Locksley’s experience from the field to life for the students and see manifestations of leadership and teamwork in football,” says Professor and MiM Academic Director Rellie Derfler-Rozin.

What prompted the collaboration? “This is the Dean’s (Prabhudev Konana) initiative to bring more experiential learning to the class,” says Derfler-Rozin. 

Singh adds, “This class was always focused on building leadership coaching as a skill, and partnering with Coach Locksley is synergistic.”

The curriculum further explores leadership, decision-making, communication and conflict, work motivation, building effective teams, and organizational change and culture.

“I have been having deep dives with Coach Locksley all summer to understand his leadership style and the experiences that have shaped his thinking,” Singh says. “This has allowed me to pick the tools, both theoretical and experiential, that we want to bring to the students as a team during the course.”

Coach Locksley, she adds, “has been very open and transparent during the process, which speaks volumes about him as a leader.”

In addition to MiM students, Plus 1 students have also enrolled in Leadership and Teamwork. The demand, says Derfler-Rozin, is prompting the opening this coming spring of an additional section, which Locksley also will co-teach with Singh.