ENG-646 / 2 credits

Teacher: Jeannet Pierre-Yves

Language: English

Remark: Participants who want to enroll should provide a one-page motivation letter to beingaleaderepfl@proton.me by November 4th, 2024.


Frequency

Only this year

Summary

The sole objective of this highly interactive, challenging and stimulating course is to leave you being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as your natural self-expression.

Content

What is leadership? The experts themselves don't agree on the definition. In this Course you will discover that leadership is not what you thought it was. You will discover that everyone can be a leader, that you do not need to have a formal leadership role or position to lead, and that leadership starts with being able to lead yourself. You will also discover that there are instances in which you can only be effective as a leader by being a follower or by saying and doing nothing, just listening in a certain way.

 

The sole objective of the Course is to leave you Being a leader and exercising leadership effectively as your natural self-expression. It is based on a unique ontological/phenomenological model which has been continuously developed over the last 2 decades and is being offered in universities at a pre- and postgraduate level across the world.

The course is not based on Informative Learning, its purpose is not to increase the sum of what you already know, it is based on Transformational Learning. You will be invited to examine the validity of what you already know and how that 'knowing' may constrain, shape, and distort skills and cognitive capacities that would otherwise be available when exercising leadership. The course is highly interactive, it is challenging and stimulating. It requires intellectual rigor and sometimes emotional courage. You will have a chance to discover the constraining nature of some of your unexamined ideas, beliefs, prejudices, and taken-for-granted assumptions that constitute your frames of reference relative to being a leader and exercising leadership. It will be given in English, but you will be welcome to ask questions or make comments in French if that it easier for you.

 

You will be asked to create a "Course Leadership Project" that will provide you with a personal laboratory necessary to try out and put into practice what is presented in the Course. You will be welcome to bring a leadership project you are already working on

You will be evaluated on your engagement and participation in the course. At the end of the course, you will have to submit a reflective essay on what you learned from the course.

Note

Invited lecturer: Prof Jeri Echeverria

Keywords

Leadership, Self-reflection, Active listening, Communication, Integrity, Authenticity

Learning Prerequisites

Recommended courses

Complete the pre-course required reading and preparation, provided by the lecturer.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

  • Distinguish what is meant by Being a Leader and Exercising Leadership Effectively as your Natural Self-Expression
  • Recognize that authenticity and integrity are fundamental to being a leader
  • Identify when they are "at effect" of the circumstances rather than "cause in the matter"
  • Recognize that being a leader requires a commitment to something "bigger" than yourself
  • Recognize that the "context is decisive" and learn how to create a context to lead effectively
  • Identify what is the "past derived future" of a given situation and be able to formulate a "created future" for that situation
  • Identify the constraints that limit their Natural Self-Expression as a Leader
  • Use a new language that gives them access to the effective exercise of leadership as their natural self-expression

Resources

Bibliography

More information about the course is available on:
Harvard's Handbook for teaching leadership, Chapt 16, 2011 https://www.foleducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Harvard-Business-Handobook-chapter.pdf

Websites

In the programs

  • Exam form: Multiple (session free)
  • Subject examined: Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership
  • Lecture: 45 Hour(s)
  • Type: optional

Reference week

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