The goal of this course is to help you gain a better understanding of the foundations of leadership and to be more effective in leadership roles. This entails developing knowledge and skills to analyze key issues in motivation, influence, decision-making, interpersonal relations, team dynamics, and organizational change. Analysis of real-life case studies will demonstrate that effective leadership involves four critical processes: setting direction, aligning people behind it, setting and maintaining values, and growth of self and others. These leadership tasks require self-awareness and self-manage­ment skills, therefore this course will provide you with an opportunity to evaluate your leadership development needs and create a personal development action plan.

In addition to covering the leadership fundamentals, the course will address important contemporary leadership issues and emerging new trends in leadership. Today’s leaders face unprecedented levels of complexity and have to make far-reaching decisions in an environment characterized by uncertainty, volatility, and unpredictability – a VUCA world. We will explore how leaders can navigate their organizations through periods of radical change, such as the global COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of accelerated climate change, and rising geopolitical tensions, and help their organizations remain resilient in times of turbulence, crisis, and disruption.

Another focus of this course is on the global and cross-cultural dimensions of leadership. Despite rising anti-globalization sentiments in many parts of the world, at no time in history has the contact between individuals and organizations from different countries been greater. Global virtual teams are created to address important strategic challenges. As companies are moving to more agile and flexible ways of working in a post-Covid world, part of the workforce is remote or hybrid, which brings its own leadership challenges. As a result, the demands on leaders have increased exponentially.

Finally, you will be given an opportunity to reflect on your “leadership story” (i.e., your personal development journey) and how it shaped you as a person and as a leader, as well as on how you can accelerate your leadership develop­ment during your CEMS studies and beyond – essentially, set your personal developmental agenda for the next years.

Knowledge and Understanding:

·       First-hand accounts of the challenges facing global corporations and leaders.
·       Guidelines on managing people, teams and organizations in global contexts.
·       Better understanding of the ethical dilemmas facing global managers and strategies for dealing with those dilemmas.
·       Knowledge in culture theory and better understanding of how culture affects corporate strategy, organizational structure, and management practice.
·       Understanding of which attributes are important for global leadership success.

Cognitive and Subject Specific Skills:

·       Knowledge to manage and lead effectively in cross-border environments.
·       People management best practices and tools for managing organizational culture.
·       An awareness of the pervasive influence that culture has on organizational behavior.
·       The capacity to analyze differences in communication patterns and leadership behavior.
·       The capacity to develop and implement high quality solutions in a global context.

General Skills:

·       The ability to apply management know-how and skills to real-world leadership challenges.
·       The ability to analyze cases dealing with global management and cross-cultural issues and to apply the learning to practical business situations.
·       Experience working in multicultural teams and better teamwork skills.
·       Greater intercultural sensitivity and empathy.
·       Better implementation skills and the ability to balance global and local demands.

The course is organized around seven 4-5 hour in-class sessions. Each session addresses a particular leadership challenge (e.g., leading a culturally diverse team) or illustrates a particular leadership principle (e.g., influence without authority). Our modus operandi will be dialog, and the teaching approach varied, with a mix of lecture input, group discussion, case analysis, videos, and assessments. Since effective leadership requires self-awareness, self-diagnostic tools will also be made available.

A distinctive feature of this course is that most classes have a blended learning element where I pre-recorded a short 15-20 minute video lecture that gives an introduction to the topic at hand. This way we do not have to cover the fundamentals in class and have more time for discussion. In addition to reviewing the preparatory readings, cases and videos (those marked as required in the syllabus), some classes require advance preparation in the form of assignments, quizzes, case analyses, or reflection before the meeting. The thoroughness of the preparation during these asynchronous self-study periods will affect your grades for participation or other grade components (see the section on COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING below).

The course grade will be computed as a weighted average of five elements:

a)       Participation (30%)

b)      Case study questions (20%)

c)       Essay “What does leadership mean to me?” (10%)

d)      Group project “21st Century Leadership” (20%)

e)      Reflection paper “My leadership story” (20%)

While evaluation is a necessary feature of this and any other course, it is not expected that participants will populate both tails of a normal distribution.

Important: Students who attended or are planning to attend the Becoming a Global Leader elective course (in the winter semester) with Prof. Stahl are not eligible for this course.

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The use of AI-based software in assignments is permitted, but course participants are required to provide indication for the corresponding sections (e.g., in a footnote). Note that the use of AI-based software, such as ChatGPT, for text generation in the reflection paper My Leadership Story is problematic. The focus of the paper is on your personal development journey and what leadership means to you (not what leadership means to ChatGPT). Output from any Generative AI tool must be carefully reviewed before that output should be used for any assignment. In short, I allow the use of AI in assignments, but expect that this is transparently explained, disclosed and justified.