Leadership in transformational times

To lead is to live with danger. Although it may be exciting to think of leadership as inspiration, decisive action, and rewards, leading requires taking risks that can jeopardize your career and personal life. It often requires putting yourself on the line, disturbing the status quo, and working with organizational and political conflicts. Those who choose to lead take risks and sometimes get neutralized for doing so.

The purpose of the course is to increase one’s capacity to lead with and without authority, across boundaries, and from any organizational position. In a world in which most organizations, communities, and societies face enormous adaptive pressures, the practice of leadership is critical – the practice of mobilizing systems of people to thrive in changing and challenging times.

The course draws from philosophy, biology, political science, business management, history, literature, social psychology, system dynamics, and music. It is designed to be a transformative personal experience.

Upon the completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Differentiate between leadership and authority, understanding what adaptive challenges are and the role of leadership in addressing them.
• Analyze systemic challenges in their organization, understand the different groups that uphold the status quo, and reflect from one’s personal defaults in being and engaging with authority in organizations and society.
• Understand the complexity, dilemmas, and challenges of leading change in social systems and develop action strategies to lead, regardless of their level of formal authority in communities, organizations, and society at large.
• Learn how to communicate, mobilize, and build coalitions effectively.
• Understand the personal limitations and the self-discipline needed to lead meaningful change and create the conditions to cultivate the resilience needed to lead change in a sustainable way.

The course uses a variety of means to learn theory and the arts of practice. In addition to the traditional methods of lectures, readings, and films, the course uses three innovative teaching methods: student cases, “case-in-point” learning, and structured exercises.

1. The course devotes a majority of its time to analyzing the past professional experiences that students bring as each student works on a personal case study of leadership throughout the term (see case consultation in small group sessions below).

2. By analyzing the evolving dynamics of the class itself as a case-in-point in collective problem-solving and learning, students analyze the social and political dynamics of problem-solving and learning common to many organizations and societies facing critical challenges.

3. Through structured exercises of both reflection and action, some of which involve poetry and music, students learn a variety of authoritative, creative, and communication skills integral to the practice of leadership.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

Selected materials will be posted in due time on Université Virtuelle.

Contacts

Instructor: inmaculada.macias.alonso@ulb.be

In all email communication with the instructor please mention your student ID and course Mnemonic GEST-S-509

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Personal work
• Group work
• Written report

Personal work

Group work

Written report

Case Consultation in Small Groups Sessions: The full class is divided randomly into small groups of students. The groups meet for 1 hour a week at a time to be arranged. The purpose of these sessions is to give students a laboratory to:

1. Apply what they learn in class and in the readings to their professional experiences.

2. Investigate ways to exercise leadership, with and without authority.

3. Discover and analyze the dynamics by which groups accomplish and avoid critical and creative problem-solving work.

The organization of these groups is described in detail in class. Briefly, each student prepares a case study of a difficult authority relationship from their professional experience and presents it to the group for consultation. A guide to preparing the case study is distributed in class.

During the class sessions, students develop a framework for analyzing authority dynamics by discussing a randomly selected student case with the help of the instructor in case debriefing sessions.

Assignments: Assignments include short reflection papers based on the case consultation in small groups sessions and a final reflection paper based on student´s own leadership cases

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

The components of the course are weighted as follows:

• Classroom participation 20%
• Reflection papers 50%
• Final paper 30%

The classroom work grade is based upon one’s effort and the quality of one’s contribution in the class, and not the quantity or volume of comments. Our key evaluative questions are: How deeply did each student draw upon and analyze his or her experience? How well did one mobilize the learning of fellow students in the class?

Reflection papers are completed after the case consultation sessions in small groups. Instructions will be provided in class.

The final paper´s purpose is to help you gain and expand on important personal insights for your leadership practice. Instructions will be provided in class.
 

No late assignments will be accepted and grades are not negotiable. The instructor reserves the right to invite any student to an additional oral interview in order to verify their personal mastery of the content of the submitted paper, particularly when inconsistencies found in the paper prevent the instructor from properly assessing the student’s level of mastery of the knowledge and skills covered in the course. 

Language(s) of evaluation

• english