Leadership best practices

Duration

16h Pr

Number of credits

Lecturer

Michael Ghilissen

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

• Strong leadership rises to the top repeatedly as the key advantage that separates world-class companies from the rest. Great leaders can craft winning competitive strategies and drive critical innovation, implement change, and create agile organizations that can succeed in complex markets. Leadership Best Practices is a workshop that explores the many dimensions of great leadership. Designed to build strategic vision and personal leadership skills, this workshop examines today's leadership critical concepts, competencies, and leadership best practices in depth, using real-life examples and business cases.
• We use the concept of smart power to shed light on such topics as leadership types and skills, the needs and demands of followers, and the nature of good and bad leadership in terms of both ethics and effectiveness. We look in depth at "contextual intelligence' - the ability to understand changing environments, capitalize on trends, and use the flow of events to implement strategies.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

Groups and teams

• The idea of getting people moving in the same direction is an organizational problem. But what executives need to do is not organize people but align them. How to manage the conditions that drive team performance?
• Because so much of the work in today's organizations is accomplished by teams, managers must be skilled at participating in and leading teams. This course segment explores the multiple factors that shape group development, dynamics, and effectiveness. We will look particularly at the determinants of group culture and performance and what happens when one attempts to change a group's culture. Building on this understanding, we will then examine the manager's role in designing and building an effective team and the impact of the manager's style on the team's behavior and performance.

• Trying to get people to comprehend a vision of an alternative future is a communications challenge different from organizing them to fulfill a short-term plan.
• We will look at a number of leaders "in action" to gain insight into the critical functions and personal qualities that contribute to effective leadership. We will identify different approaches for developing and communicating a vision for an organization and for motivating people to fulfill that vision. We also look at the role of the leader as an architect or organizational designer. To be effective, an organization's critical elements need to be aligned. This segment will also examine what it takes to achieve a "good fit" among an organization's elements: its strategy, structure, systems, staffing, skills, style, and shared values.

• Management is about coping with complexity. Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change. How to identify the need for strategic realignment and the skills to motivate for change while overcoming stakeholder resistance; how to create strategies for change, and design impactful and sustainable initiatives; how to navigate uncertainty and disruption.
• Leaders' attempts to renew or change their organizations often fail. In this course segment, we will compare and contrast successful and unsuccessful efforts to transform organizations to identify critical stages and activities in the change process. We address the following questions: What are the primary sources of resistance to change? What are the most appropriate ways to overcome them? What change strategies "work" and under what conditions?

• Understand motivational drivers, emotional intelligence, and communication methods to establish a leadership style.
• Take charge of your professional development as you navigate the challenges of transitioning from an individual contributor performing specific tasks to a leader motivating and aligning people behind a common vision or direction.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

No prerequisite.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course


Additional information:

• 0h Théorie, 16h Pratique (4 séances de 4h).
• The workshop is a balanced mix between theoretical discussions and practical exercises. It is a very hands-on workshop, demanding students to prepare self-evaluations, readings, and cases and write a journal for every workshop session.
• The teaching includes individual feedback and collective debriefings, and review discussions.
• Une connaissance passive de l'anglais est suffisante. Si le cours rencontre suffisamment de succès, il pourra être organisé en français.

Course materials and recommended or required readings

Further information:

• Teaching material and assignments will be available on eCampus.

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

oral exam

Written work / report

Continuous assessment


Further information:

• Continuous assessment based on active participation in all 4 class sessions, analysis/reflection on one of the course topics about a current event or situation (application of concepts), and group work with presentation.

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

Contacts

Michael Ghilissen email: michael.ghilissen@uliege.be  Office hours by appointment only.

Association of one or more MOOCs