Leading with Character: When Doing Your Best Matters Most, Wuagneux, Summer 2019

Note: TUITION FOR THIS COURSE IS PAYABLE to Castleton University. Please mail the check to: Financial & Registration Services, Castleton University, 62 Alumni Drive, Castleton, VT 05753. To help us ensure that your payment is applied to the correct course, PLEASE WRITE “CFS” IN THE CHECK MEMO LINE. Thank you.

Course Description

This course will lay the groundwork for both the study of leadership and enhancing the capacity to lead, emphasizing skills such as goal setting, communication, and organization, along with the other skills it takes to be a good leader both in your school and community.  The structure of this class will consist of group activities (yes, there will be actual assignments) as well as learning and practicing of leadership qualities/skills both as a group and as individuals.  Remember, this course is based on the belief that good leaders are developed—not born.  As such, the focus of this class will be to give you the tools you need to become great leaders.

We will examine the process of leadership, by learning and evaluating different traits, approaches, styles and theories of leadership that are used within leadership development. There will be ample opportunity to direct our attention to current application and the implications to organizations and its leaders. This course also focuses on analyzing yourself as a leader and encourages you to learn from that analysis and to make changes or adaptations in order to be effective. We will also examine the differences between management and leadership and why those differences are important to the well-being of organizations. Topics to be covered include:

1. Defining Leadership
2. Types of Leaders
3. Leadership Qualities, Traits and Personalities
4. Leadership Skills
5. Leadership Styles
6. Leadership Theories
7. Leader as Change Agent and Visionary
8. Leading Teams
9. Leadership and Culture
10. Ethics and Conflicts

Audience: All K-12 educators.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Engage in Leadership Level Critical Thinking
• Increase self-awareness for development and personal growth
• Make decisions implementing critical thinking with impact on individuals, organizations, and the world at large
• Recognize the importance of good Leadership and Followership
• Cope effectively with ambiguity
• Think critically about leadership in practice and as a discipline
• Analyze theories of leadership
• Question various leadership styles, notions of followership, and the social dynamics that comprise these ideas
• Describe and explain your philosophy of leadership
• Identify your areas of focus for personal and professional growth and describe your plans for that development
• Develop a leadership portfolio.
• Exercise an understanding of the fundamental ways leadership is practiced in your own organizations/environments.
• Enhance writing skills by comparing and contrasting different leadership approaches.

Effective leadership means bringing to bear the development of those around you, and maximizing others’ potential while learning ways to maximize your own.

Objectives:

• To understand current issues, problems and opportunities present in organizations;
• To examine the alignment of key human resource factors that promote the success of an organization;
• To analyze how effective leadership can impact the organization and shape the development of its vision, values, mission, goals and culture;
• To understand the leader-follower relationship in organizations
• To distinguish between leadership and management and to understand areas of shared responsibility;
• To experience practical aspects of leadership by working within organizations in your specific area of influence;
• To practice leadership and contribute to the learning of others
• To learn to work in teams and achieve mutual goals.

Required Readings

Leading Change: John Kotter

Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership: Lee G. Bolman and Terence E. Deal

Up the Organization: Robert Townsend and Warren Bennis

NOTE: These are more than texts for a class. They have served me well as a Leader, Parent, and Community Member. Topics from these books will more often than not be the source of many discussions

Other Suggested Readings/Texts:

 Required Readings/Texts: (required texts not included in cost of course)

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article "Leading Change," by John P. Kotter)

It Starts with One: J. Stewart Black

Websites: I selected these videos because they present a different yet rather comprehensive review of leadership.  Some are better than others…just like LEADERS. They are in NO SPECIFIC ORDER or IMPORTANCE. I post them as another option to become more informed about our topic. Should you have a favorite you would like to share, by all means have at it. I shall post others along our journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDsMlmfLjd4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02EJ1IdC6tE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlpKyLklDDY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zryoJjv_fhw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQrPVmcgJJk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLRH5J_93LQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMcSBQvQLQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiN67V5q3C4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

For additional course information:

Robert Wuagneux
(802) 353-7322

For additional registration and payment information:

Bethany Sprague

(802) 468-1325

Register online now!