Brenda Ellington Booth
Clinical Professor of Management & Organizations
Brenda Ellington Booth helps leaders grow professionally and personally. She is a highly sought-after professor, executive coach, and innovator of leadership development curriculum. In 2021 and 2022, graduating classes asked Professor Booth to be a "Note Bene" speaker, an honor awarded to a handful of outstanding professors who students consider thought leaders. In addition, in 2022, Booth was a finalist for Kellogg's Professor of the Year award.
Education & Professional Training
She holds a BA from Stanford University, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Northwestern University. She is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She has certifications in the Hogan, EQ, and PSCI assessments.
Coaching
She routinely coaches high-potential professionals, including Kellogg MBAs, Executive MBAs, and Executive Education participants. In addition, she is a strategic thought partner to C-suite executives and senior-level leaders. She has a particular passion for leaders of nonprofit organizations and leaders who strive to create inclusive environments for diverse teams and organizations, women, and people of color. She is also a certified mentor coach who works with aspiring coaches in their certification process with the ICF.
From 2007 to 2014, she was Kellogg's Director of Leadership Coaching Programs. In this role, she spearheaded Kellogg's Executive Programs, integrating executive programs in numerous open enrollment and custom programs. Now, coaching is a commonplace component of many of Kellogg's course offerings.
Curriculum Design & Teaching
Professor Booth created numerous successful, longstanding educational experiences at Kellogg. She co-created, served as co-Academic Director, taught, and coached in Kellogg's Executive program "Energizing People for Performance. Booth led a team of teaching coaches to develop the longstanding and popular Personal Leadership Insights MBA course, which roughly 480 students take in any given academic year. She collaborated with NU's Center for Leadership to create another Kellogg high-demand MBA course, Leader as Coach. And recently, she developed a new MBA-level class that will launch in the spring of 2022 called Leading with Empathy: Enhancing Your Emotional Intelligence to Lead Others in Diverse Settings.
For over 15 years, Professor Booth served as Academic Director of numerous leadership development programs in Executive Education for both open enrollment and custom clients. In these programs, she continuously designed and updated the curriculum. Also, she is the co-author of several case studies on leadership and people management topics.
In Kellogg's Executive and Executive Masters programs, she teaches sessions on the Leader as Coach, Leading with Empathy, and Communication Styles.
Before Kellogg
Before joining Kellogg, while a master's student, Brenda taught an elective seminar at Stanford University, published an investors' report on the insurance industry for the former investment bank Salomon Brothers; and wrote a case study on change management for the University of Michigan's Graduate School of Management. In addition, she accumulated several years of work experience in corporate settings in the functional areas of accounting, finance, and marketing. She started her career at Home Box Office as a financial analyst and was an account executive with the advertising agency Leo Burnett.
- Personal Leadership DevelopmentLeader as CoachLeading with Empathy: Enhancing Your Emotional Intelligence to Lead in Diverse Settings
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PhD, 1998, Organizational Behavior, Northwestern University
MBA, 1986, Stanford University
AB, 1982, Economics, Stanford University -
Clinical Professor of Management & Organizations, Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2009-present
Director of Kellogg Leadership Coaching Programs, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2007-2012
Associate Academic Director of Executive Programs, Kellogg, Northwestern University, 1998-2008
Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations, Northwestern University, Northwestern University, 1998-2008
Instructor (Doctoral Candidacy), Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1994-1998 -
Account Executive, Leo Burnett USA, 1986-1991
Financial & System Analyst, Home Box Office, Inc., 1982-1984 -
Kellogg Nota Bene Speaker for Full-Time Program
Finalist for L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award
Finalist for L. G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award
Kellogg Nota Bene Speaker for Full-Time Program
Kellogg Nota Bene Speaker for Full-Time Program
Kellogg Nota Bene Speaker for Full-Time Program
Kellogg Student Impact
Kellogg Student Impact
Student Impact Award
Personal Insights for Early Career Professionals (LDEVM-461-5)
Leading with Empathy: Enhancing Your Emotional Intelligence to Lead in Diverse Settings (LDEV-965-5)
The goal of this course is to increase your level of emotional intelligence with an emphasis on empathy such that you can become more effective when interacting with and leading others in diverse settings. This class provides you with the opportunity to gain deeper insights of yourself and diverse others through a variety of experiential learning activities. We will start off with in-class exercises and discussions on social identity theory. Then we will discuss how understanding social identities (yours and others) will enhance your level of emotional intelligence - with a strong focus on empathy, critical component of emotional intelligence. Finally, we will make the concepts of social identity and emotional intelligence come to life in class through facilitated, interactive "in-group/out-group" discussions whereby you will share and learn from your peers. In tandem with these discussions, outside of class, you will self-select into diverse, small groups of peers and be challenged to educate and discuss with your lived experiences through the lens of your social identities. Grading for this class will be a combination of class participation, regular reflection papers and a final group project.
Leader as Coach (LDEV-462-0)
Coaching or "the coach approach" (using elements of coaching in day-to-day interactions), is a critical skill set for successful leaders. Research shows that coaching is a proven method for engaging employees - and that engaged employees produce superior business results. This is an experiential class that teaches you how to have effective coaching conversations. As part of the course, you are matched with two NU students in which you will have four one-hour coaching conversations with each NU student throughout the quarter to practice your coaching skills. In the full-time program, the assigned NU students are undergraduates usually in leadership roles and PhD students. In the part-time program, the assigned NU students are typically medical, law school and Kellogg MSMS students. The first four weeks of class is dedicated to teaching you coaching skills and frameworks through interactive discussions, coaching demonstrations, peer coaching and other experiential exercises. During weeks five through nine, we conduct supplemental activities: practicum labs, one-on-one, and small group mentor coaching sessions to provide you with more personalized opportunities for you to ask questions, experience being coached, and receive feedback on your coaching skills. We return to the classroom in week ten to discuss how to apply coaching in the workplace. Grading in the course consists of attendance and preparation for class and supplemental activities and an instructor evaluation of your coaching skills via a recording you will submit of yourself coaching a peer in the class.
Prerequisite: MORS 430-0.
Personal Leadership Insights (LDEV-461-5)
This course is a unique opportunity for students who are highly motivated and committed to their personal development and growth as a leader and who value the chance to do this work in a group setting. The Kellogg faculty leader serves as coach and facilitator to guide students through a process that explores who they are (strengths, needs, values), reveals how others experience them (feedback), examines who they want to be (vision/purpose) and identifies actions for moving forward (development planning). Individual reflective exercises will be further explored and shared in small group meetings, full class discussion, and individual coaching appointments with the faculty. Students complete a paper integrating their personal insights. There is no final exam.
Because the course focuses on self-awareness and relationships with others, students rely on interactions with each other to experience vulnerability and growth within an environment of safety and trust. Therefore, students will not receive a letter grade, but rather a "Pass" with 0.5 credits or a "No-Credit" on their transcript. The "Pass" designation will be given if the following requirements are met: 100% attendance (non-negotiable), completion of all assignments, honoring confidentiality, and active participation in class activities and discussions.
Please note that the 100% attendance policy is non-negotiable across all sections and instructors. Only bid on a section for which you are sure you can attend every class session. Review the abbreviated syllabus for that section to confirm the precise meeting dates.
