Overview
This course is designed to help students develop essential leadership skills and capabilities needed to navigate uncertainty, complexity, and change in future work environments. It emphasizes self-reflection and experiential learning as a means of achieving these outcomes.
EDSF 620 covers both the theory and the practice of leadership development in volatile, uncertain, comples, and/or ambiguous (VUCA) contexts, integrating research-based frameworks like the Skills Horizon with hands-on skill-building in areas such as psychological safety, cultural intelligence, learning agility, collaboration, and change leadership.
Outline
This course is divided into 10 lessons:
- Lesson 1: From VUCA to Vision – Building Your Skills Horizon
- Lesson 2: Leading with Courage – Psychological Safety and the Growth Mindset
- Lesson 3: Collaboration in Facing Grand Challenges
- Lesson 4–5: Cultural Intelligence – Amplifying Your Leadership Skills
- Lesson 6–7: Learning Agility – Strengthening Future-Readiness
- Lesson 8: Developmental Agile Leadership – Empowering Projects and People
- Lesson 9: Developing Change Leadership Skills: Going Beyond Change Management Skills
- Lesson 10: Integration of Learnings
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- assess personal leadership skills using the Skills Horizon framework to identify current capabilities and development gaps.
- apply psychological safety, cultural intelligence, learning agility, and change leadership skills in complex organizational contexts.
- build collaborative leadership capabilities by developing trust and working effectively across differences.
- create evidence-based personal leadership development plans through continuous self-reflection, integration of theory and practice, and reflective writing.
Evaluation
Your grade will be based on the successful completion of three individual assignments and on your participation in moderated group discussions. Your coursework will be evaluated as follows.
| Activity | Weight |
| Participation in discussions | 40% |
| Assignment 1, Part A | 10% |
| Assignment 1, Part B | 10% |
| Assignment 2 | 40% |
| Total | 100% |
To receive a passing grade in this course, you must meet these minimum standards:
- receive a minimum of 60% on the participation component; and
- receive an average grade of 60% over all course components.