Leadership development requires learning new ways of being, which is necessary to solve increasingly complex strategic organizational problems. The two-pronged responsibilities of the leader — reaching organizational goals and developing people in their teams — can be challenging, particularly when professional, personal, and global pressures compete for one’s inner resources. Being an effective leader requires an inner transformation, yet changing oneself in adulthood has proven for many to be a difficult task. This course offers students frameworks and techniques through which they will set their developmental priorities and gain the techniques and skills necessary to complete the transformation.

The course takes an intensive, residential retreat format that is based on approaches taken by many leading organizations in supporting the leadership development of their managers and executives. During the leadership retreat, students will be provided with a number of carefully curated exercises and experiences that are designed to help them identify their typical ways of thinking and acting in important and challenging leadership situations and compare and contrast with their desired ways of thinking and acting in similar situations in the future. On the basis of identified differences between default and desired patterns of behaviour, students will be encouraged to articulate and commit to new and effective patterns of behaviour in ways consistent with their developmental priorities.