Overview
The goal in this course is to develop your strategic leadership potential. Strategic leadership is a learnable set of practices that can be deciphered, reflected upon, understood, and used. Developing leadership potential is about acquiring proficiencies in key areas that leverage pre-existing skills and expertise. It is about raising personal awareness, developing personal understanding, and learning new ways to do things at work.
Outline
This course is divided into eight lessons.
- Lesson 1: Strategic Thinking and Leader Character
- Lesson 2: Pattern Recognition and Sensemaking
- Lesson 3: Systems Approaches
- Lesson 4: Cognitive Flexibility
- Lesson 5: Structured Problem-Solving
- Lesson 6: Visioning
- Lesson 7: Power, Political Skill, Political Savvy, Influence
- Lesson 8: Challenges and Opportunities
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- differentiate between operant leadership and strategic leadership.
- describe the relatively recent evolution of the study and practice of the discipline of strategic leadership.
- define leader character and gain insight into the nature of their own leader character.
- examine and practice ways they can identify their organization’s priorities and opportunities in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, through such skills as pattern recognition, sensemaking, systems approaches to solving problems, and improving their mental agility.
- identify and analyze the skills they will need to be able to prioritize and mobilize action in their organization, such as structured problem-solving, visioning, and political savvy.
- discover the skills, styles, challenges, and importance of strategic leadership.
- identify their path forward for growth by designing their continuous learning development plan based on the results of several key self-rated assessments.
Evaluation
Your grade will be based on the successful completion of two individual assignments and on your participation in moderated group discussions.
| Activity | Weight |
| Participation in Discussions | 35% |
| Assignment 1 | 30% |
| Assignment 2 | 35% |
| 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.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Watkins, M. (2024). The six disciplines of strategic thinking: leading your organization into the future. Harper Business.
All other course materials will be accessed online.