Course 2019-2020 a.y.

Leadership is an organizational process meant to establish the direction, to align on values, purposes and goals and to empower people for the achievement of exceptional results. The aim of the leader is to “mobilize normal people to get great things done”(Kouzes, Posner, 2017) taking the responsibility for individual, team and organizational development and sustainability. The course will explore the most relevant concepts and the personal and interpersonal competencies that enable effective global leadership starting from one main assumption: leaders who

focus on bringing out the best in themselves and in people in the context in which they operate, can transform the way their organizations functions achieving great results in a sustainable way.

A further assumption on which the course has been designed is that leadership competencies are built upon self-awareness and self-leadership abilities. This is the reason why participants are provided with opportunities  to reflect on themselves and on their interpersonal styles both through self-assessment, class discussions and peer coaching session.

• Know and understand leadership-specific terms.
• Have an understanding of yourself as a person and a leader in terms of personality traits, leadership skills, and proclivity to biases that dampen leadership potential.
• Know best practices for acting and leading in different situations (conditional on a variety of factors).

• Choose the most appropriate leadership style given the situation
• Manage yourself (emotions, stress level and intellectual abilities)
• Manage interpersonal relationships in a constructive e positive way enhancing the potential and competence of every person involved
• Build credibility and trust in interpersonal settings.
• Craft high impact communication styles (one on one and one to many)
• Develop sensitivity to different cultures.
• Stimulate creative work among diverse people
• Draw on benefits and overcome challenges associated with teamwork.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)

Leadership is an interpersonal process based upon trust and credibility: great attention is therefore given to strategies and skills for the creation of a positive climate, for promoting assertive and constructive communication, for building trusting relationships and for the enhancement of people’s engagement by leveraging on their strengths and on a shared meaning.

The course is structured in 12 half-day sessions to allow both the exploration of theory and learning through experience and collaboration. Concepts and models are shared both to enable the “making sense” that is a more thorough understanding of leadership dynamics, and to address and support high impact behavior. Adults are in fact “more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking than to think their way into a new way of acting” and  one of the aims of the course is to enable leadership to become more “common practice” with less “common sense” approaches to it.

The teaching approach will be varied with a mix of lectures, group discussion, case analysis, the use of self-assessment tools and peer coaching sessions. 

Overall professors will strive to create a safe environment where experimentation and constructive dialogue is possible. Class and small teams dynamics are in fact a precious leadership development opportunity given the cross-cultural dimension of CEMS class and the high potential of the students that take part in it.

To be considered an attending student attendance should not be lower than 36 out of 48 hours (75%)

●       Group Assignments (50%)

●       Written exam (50%)

The best contributors in class will receive up to 1 bonus point (added up to the final grade) for their class participation. Please be aware that we value quality and not quantity of contributions when bonus points are assigned. A pre-requisite to receive the bonus point is to be and attending student that is to have attended at least 75% of the sessions (36 out of the 48 hours of the course).

Written exam based on the book: Mendenhall, M.E. et al. (2013).  Global Leadership. Research, Practice, and Development, Routledge

●       Readings indicated on the syllabus (to be downloaded from Bboard or to be found online)

●       Slides uploaded on BBoard

●       Material provided by external guests and available on BBoard

●       Personal notes

Kouzes, Posner, The Leadership challenge. How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations, 6th edition, 2017, Jossey Bass