(Professors Ella L. Bell, William F. Joyce, Robert K. Kazanjian, Judith B. White)
The basic premise of this course is that effective leaders create conditions that enable organization members to be maximally effective in their roles and that lead them to act in the organization’s best interests. The purpose of this course is to develop students’ effectiveness as leaders by (1) introducing them to frameworks that are useful for diagnosing problems involving human behavior and (2) helping them learn how to exercise leadership to solve those problems—from managing the motivation and performance of individuals and teams to leading at the executive level.
The purpose of this course is to learn how to work with change on the personal and professional level. Students will plan and implement change at the individual and organizational levels. On the personal level, students select an individual change project on any goal they desire. On the group level, students work in small, self-selected change teams to complete a change project outside of class. This course is experiential, using lectures, self-reflection, group processing, and readings.
Exceeding performance expectations is not enough in today’s business climate if an executive is to succeed. Executives must find ways for developing their employees in order to get the very best productivity. Wise leaders recognize that people are a source of corporate wealth. A potent leader co-creates with his or her people to push the company ahead of the competition. But before a leader can assume this role and responsibility, he or she must be willing to engage in their own developmental journey. In this course, participantsl takes leadership out of the box by studying the lives of extraordinary leaders while engaging in their own self-exploration. The intent is to appreciate the strengths and frailties all leaders possess, and to understand the learning edges we all experience. This course creates the space to study, reflect on and discuss principles of leadership, such as self-awareness, identity, faith, vision, courage, passion, mindfulness and commitment. By studying the lives of others, we learn how the context shapes the experiences and choices of leaders over the course of their lives. We also recognize the power of the historical moment that enables certain men and women to come to the forefront at critical times.
Another element of Leadership out of the Box is for participants to engage in their own self-analysis. A variety of structured experiential and written exercises are used to enhance the participant’s self-awareness. Here the intent is for participants to examine their essential values and goals in actualization of their noble dream: Their life purpose issues of identity will be investigated including gender, race, ethnicity, class and sexual orientation. We strive to discover the behavioral patterns, mental models, and other influences that are the driving forces behind our noble dream. To augment this inner journey, guest speakers come to share their own journey, their noble dreams, and achieving them.