Leading Teams: Developing as a Leader

You will become familiar with the course, your classmates, and our learning environment. The orientation will also help you obtain the technical skills required for the course.

Leadership is a journey, not an end state. In this module, you will begin to explore the concept of leadership to set the stage for your own growth as a leader. We will provide a definition of leadership that will give you areas of growth to pay attention to over the remainder of the course. In addition to defining leadership, we will explore a brief history of leadership as a field of study and highlight the key competencies and roles that leaders can develop to succeed in today's business environment.

Effective leadership starts with the self. Leading others is a relationship, and therefore we have to own our role in the process of leadership. In this module, we will explore the idea of leader identity – do you see yourself as a leader? - and how this affects our ability to lead effectively. We will look at the science of self-awareness, helping to articulate what self-awareness means and how to cultivate it. We will dive deeply into human decision making – identifying what helps us make both effective and ethical decisions. Finally, we wrap this module with the idea of psychological well-being, which is arguably one of the most topical issues for leaders today.

To lead effectively, we have to understand our relationships with others. In this module, we will explore key concepts that help us build trusting relationships and understand the people who look to us as leaders. We start with arguably one of the most important concepts of the past couple of decades – Emotional Intelligence. From here, we define the importance of trust and how to build trusting relationships. We look at the way power – both formal power and psychological feelings of power – can affect our ability to build those trusting relationships. Finally, we consider how to navigate differences of opinion – by discussing negotiation and conflict management strategies as leaders.

Leadership growth requires constant attention in practice. In this module, we introduce you to the three C’s - three key practices to cultivate as you continue to develop as a leader. We explore why Curiosity, Courage, and Commitment matter and how you can practice them yourself.