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Below you will find a list of courses I have taken to advance my professional development or deepen my knowledge of leadership.
Professional Development Courses :
> Essentials of Leadership
The essence of being an effective people leader lies in establishing good interpersonal work relationships and having the ability to spark action in others. This course teaches leaders how to get results through people. During the course, they learn a set of essential skills to meet both practical business needs and people’s personal needs. Learners acquire a set of proven interaction skills, discover seven Leadership Imperatives for meeting today’s challenges, and realize their role as a catalyst leader – a leader who inspires others to act.
> Six Sigma 101
This course provides a dynamic and interactive learning experience as an introduction to the application of CheckFree’s Six Sigma Process Excellence approach. A business simulation is used to represent the types of problems encountered in a transaction-based business, as students engage to identify the problems, gauge the impact, search for the root causes, make breakthrough improvements to the process, and control the process. By the end of the day, students will be equipped to view their work in such a way that they will want to proactively seek out the Voice of the Customer, strive to manage the processes in which they work and demand data to help make better decisions.
> Crucial Conversations
Communication skills are a priority at life and work because conversations are the crucial element in profound relationships. The Crucial Conversations course is based on the New York Times Best Seller book Crucial Conversations. During this two day class, participants will learn skills to enhance their ability to have crucial conversations in a business setting and a personal setting. The class provides tools for talking when the stakes are high.
> Influential Leadership
In today’s flatter, ever-evolving organization, leaders need to get things done through people who work outside their line of reporting, and in some cases who even “outrank” them. Welcome to the new age of influence, where effective leaders don’t, or can’t throw their weight around to make things happen, even with their direct reports. Influential Leadership helps leaders get their good ideas heard, accepted and enacted. Leaders learn influencing strategies and how to package ideas to gain the commitment of even the most skeptical co-workers and partners.
> Communication & Listening
When people in your organization are communicating effectively, they are informed and able to participate, contribute, and add value to their jobs and the organization. Communicating and listening is designed to equip employees with the skills they need to communicate clearly and listen carefully.
Leadership Curriculum:
A list of leadership courses I have taken at the McDonough Center:
> Leadership 401 :: Seminar in Leadership Studies
Capstone course for students in the Leadership minor. The course requires students to reach individual conclusions about leadership using, as basis for judgment, prior academic work as well as practical experience.
> Leadership 396-34 :: Harvard America’s Best Leaders Project Research
In the 2007-08 academic year, Marietta College was chosen to host one of the three satellite research teams working in collaboration with the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and U.S. News & World Report. The aims of these satellite teams were to identify, research, compose descriptive profiles, and contribute to the selection process of the 2008 America’s Best Leaders publication. See us in the news and see a description of America’s Best Leaders.
> Leadership 396-30 :: EIR Communications Challenge
Visiting Marietta alum and President of the Wickaboag Consulting Group Robert Peterson, served as the 2007 Executive-in-Residence (EIR) at the McDonough Center. While with the EIR program, Robert Peterson directed a leadership communication challenge in which two teams of McDonough Scholars learned essential skills, consulted local businesses, and attempted to “sell” their consultation. My team, Imagine Inc., won the challenge. See us in the news.
> Leadership 350 :: Leadership in the Mediterranean
Study-abroad travel to Italy, Egypt, and Greece in the Summer of 2006 to study leadership models and paradigms in the Mediterranean.
> Leadership 340 :: Leadership Practicum III
Prepares candidates for an internship (required for the Leadership minor) and/or the transition to the world of work. Includes participants’ observations and critical reaction analysis; résumé writing and letters of application; effective interpersonal communication, including interview skills.
> Communication 301 :: Group Discussion & Leadership
Theory and practice of purposeful leadership and member participation in task groups. It includes an examination of interpersonal skills, decision-making techniques, conflict management, leadership, ethical theories, and problem solving procedures. Logical and psychological aspects of group process will be examined from the perspective of communication. Students have the opportunity to implement course concepts through a series of group decision tasks throughout the semester. They also gain experience in group leadership and self-analysis.
> Leadership 240 :: Leadership Practicum II
As with its precursor Leadership 140, this course offers students taking Leadership 201 an opportunity to experiment with, and thereby practice, the skills associated with Leadership theory. Students participate in designing Leadership around the various theoretical structures examined in the classroom. Field research projects offer students an opportunity to create new organizations “from scratch” and to set those new organizations into motion on campus or in the local community.
> Leadership 203 :: Global Leadership
Understanding diversity and leadership in a global context.
> Leadership 201 :: Leadership Theories & Models
Major theories and concepts of leadership. Contemporary leadership literature and synthesis of personal leadership model. Superior/subordinate relationships, interpersonal organizational effectiveness, and communication concepts.
> Leadership 140 :: Leadership Practicum I
In the true sense of a practicum, this course provides students with the opportunity to explore the practical skills of Leadership while completing the classroom requirements of Leadership 103. Students focus on creating and pursuing a specific initiative within an organization, beginning with the informal
stages of group facilitation, continuing through more structured stages of development-by-committee, and ending with the highly formalized interactions found in quasi-legislative organizational settings. While practicing the substantive and procedural skills of organizational life, students also explore the skill sets related to facilitation, mediation, and authority.
> Leadership 121 :: Leadership Training for Resident Assistants
Discussion and practice of specific leadership skills necessary for the resident assistant position: communication, assertiveness, conflict management, problem solving, and coalition building.
> Leadership 103 :: Organizational Leadership
Current theories of organizational structures and functions. Practical application of leadership styles in managing change within organization.
> Leadership 101 :: Foundations in Leadership
Foundations course in leadership studies. Exploration of introductory themes: the academic study of leadership, definitions, ethics, power, and the tension between individualism and community.
