10 Required Courses
Leading the Organization
GS 900 Communications and Leadership
Residency Course. Provides a comprehensive approach to communicating at work from the perspective of the executive, enabling the leadership student to understand and correct the poor communication processes and systems in many organizations. Students focus on mitigating conflict through constructive communication, projecting the appropriate perception of power, customizing communication to maximize clarity of understanding, swiftly dealing with crisis communications and generally communicating effectively, whether in a conversation, within a group, by e-mail, or to an audience. Students will also be exposed to an assortment of leadership styles and techniques encountered in typical working environments that mandate an assortment of styles to ensure effectiveness as a leader.
GS 930 Classic and Contemporary Leadership Studies
Differentiates management skills from leadership skills. It reviews the essential research of the last 100+ years as it describes the traits, style and functions of a leader, as well as situational aspects, team leadership and transformational leadership. The twin aspects of humility and will, which are essential to move from good leadership to great leadership, are discussed. Contemporary issues of leadership as they relate to changes in society are also discussed.
GS 960 Leading Strategy Development
Strategic management is concerned with determining the future direction of an organization and implementing the decisions aimed at achieving the organization’s long-term and short-term objectives. The strategic management process consists of major interrelated sub-processes, including the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis approach. The process enables a leader to formulate and implement strategies that accomplish the mission and vision of the organization.
GS 990 Organizational Change/Capstone
Residency course. The intent of this course is to acquaint students with the complexity of change. Change is a constant process in the modern organization as the level of competition continues to intensify. Change involves the appreciation and understanding of organizational culture, conflict resolution, meticulous communications techniques, and advanced leadership skills (including innovative intelligence and critical thinking). This intensive course will address each of the topics listed above by reviewing some exceptional readings and reinforcing the concepts learned through a series of interactive exercises and activities. Upon completion of this course, students will be better prepared to lead change within their organizations as well as respond to the resistance that generally accompanies change initiatives.
Driving Managerial Processes and Systems
GS 910 Leadership Development Experience
Residency course. A year-long course designed to provide students with skills useful to their current work as it prepares them for greater leadership challenges in the future. It begins in Residency I and ends in Residency II. The leadership methods taught in this project are the best practices employed by top executives in many successful companies to facilitate change and improve performance. Methods will vary for individual projects; specific methods will be recommended to fit students’ work settings.
GS 940 Dynamic Organizational Leadership
Understanding organizational behavior as a necessary requirement for whole systems in developing organizations is the central content of this course. The course connects the drives of human behavior to group behavior in dealing with learning, stress and conflict and the subsequent impact on an organization’s culture and strategy as they continue to change. Also, it demonstrates the importance of power, influence and politics on human behavior and why it is critical to develop the skills to delegate, motivate, appraise performance and still be flexible and creative. The relationships between individual performance and the environment of the organization are analyzed in depth.
GS 950 Law, Compliance, Benefits, & Social Responsibility
Shows the relationships between law, compliance processes, employee compensation and benefits packages, social responsibility and the success of an organization. Building on the behaviors explored in GS 940, it elaborates on the importance of human resources expertise regarding job analysis, recruitment, selection, compensation, measurement of performance and diversity in leading a successful organization. The course demonstrates the importance of the organization’s compliance with government requirements of fairness at work, and it includes a discussion of contemporary human resource management and leadership principles and practices.
Leader Development
GS 920 Personal and Interpersonal Leadership Skills
Residency Course. This course enhances the leader’s skill sets by providing the theory and applications of personal, interpersonal and group and organizational skills. The personal skills emphasize leader self-awareness; the interpersonal skills place emphasis on the one-on-one interaction; and the group and organizational interpersonal skills place the emphasis on teams. An array of articles is used to illustrate major skills that are discussed in the text. The latter part of this course asks the student to conduct several self-assessments based on the idea that one must understand one’s self before understanding those who are led.
GS 970 Decision-Making Leadership Skills
Examines the individual and collective factors that affect the decisions managers make in their everyday routine at work. The approach is descriptive and prescriptive as it focuses on how managers actually make decisions, as well as how they ought to make them to optimize fulfillment of organizational and personal goals. There are two main sections of the course: the first deals with individual-level processes that influence decisions; the second considers the collective forces that affect managers’ and leaders’ decisions.
GS 980 Ethics in Leadership
Residency course. Covers four areas: ethical awareness, ethical analysis/ethical decision making, current ethical issues in the financial services industry and ethical management in an organization. This class provides the skills required to make reasoned responses to ethical dilemmas, deal with daily and long-term ethical challenges and build an ethical culture in an organization. The course explores the emotional influence on behavior and decisions, and it explains how to learn from success and failure. In this highly participative course, the leadership candidate is expected to complete both the reading material and written assignments before arriving on campus.