MSSW 693 - Being a Leader & The Effective Exercise of Leadership

This course is based on transformative learning methodologies developed over the past ten years by a team of academics and organizational change consultants. To date, the majority of academic research about leadership has focused on individual characteristics or traits and leadership behaviors that distinguish effective and ineffective leaders. Instead of learning behaviors, and trying to emulate what other leaders do, we need access to the being of a leader, and the effective exercise of leadership. Rather than being better able to explain and understand what happens, we want access to making it happen. We will approach this through an ontological inquiry, by exploring the importance of context - the way in which people and events occur or seem to us. During the course, we will develop a context for leadership with the power to give you the being and actions of a leader, and the effective exercise of leadership as your natural self-expression. We will also provide you the opportunity to become aware of and deal with personal obstacles (ontological constraints) to the exercise of leadership, allowing you to relax the grip those obstacles have on you and your ability to access your natural leadership capacity.

Credits: 3