Self Leadership

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Critically analyse the complexities of leadership styles and demonstrate insight into why some leadership styles are used inappropriately
• Critically appraise leadership theory and assess, compare and contrast with your emotional competency and personal leadership style
• Identify and critically analyse your personal values, character and integrity to demonstrate personal accountability
• Recognise and critically evaluate your personal strengths and articulate development needs necessary to maximise your potential as an effective leader

The syllabus is divided into four overlapping themes: Personal leadership, Communications, Decision Making, and Reflective Thinking and Practice. The overarching theme that informs the module is centered on values, character, and integrity.

• Theme One: Personal leadership.
• Values, character, and integrity
• Identifying personal leadership styles
• Understanding your professional identity and its relationship to your practice
• Making explicit biases and habits
• Research on narratives and personal histories of leaders
• Critical awareness of leadership challenges
• Connecting your practice with leadership theories
• Truth and self-delusion
• Theme two: Communications.
• What makes you want to be a leader?
• Authentic dialogues
• Influencing and persuading
• Emotion and communicating
• Theme Three: The Individual and the Decision
• What is the essence of a decision?
• Identifying your personal decision making style
• Uncovering personal biases in decision making
• Attention biases
• Availability
• Heuristics
• One-aspect focus
• Motivational biases
• Psycho-physical distortions
• Moral thinking, values and fairness
• Judgement
• Theme Four: Reflective Thinking and Reflective Practice
• Models of reflective thinking and reflective practice
• Reflective leadership

Teaching and learning methods

The conduct of the module is informed by the following principles:

• Learning may be relevant to your work environment
• You may be exposed to experiential learning
• As much as is practical, you may be involved in the planning and evaluation of your learning
• Teaching and learning may be problem-centred

In practice, this means that we will keep lectures to an absolute minimum, and will instead adhere to these principles through a deep, intentional emphasis on practice-based and activity-driven classroom time that both delineate and make real practical, personal leadership. We will give ample opportunity to participants to construct their leadership strengths, identify their weaknesses, and build plans to overcome their weaknesses and maximize their strengths.

Through facilitation rather than lecturing on personal leadership theories, we will engage in activities that uncover (unknowing to the participant) habits of leading. Then we will explore the theory and research behind these habits. The key is for students to discover their habits of thought, their biases, etc., and then to delineate theory that at once helps to explain them and leads students to a reflective manner of working.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership Theory and Practice. London: Sage.

Neil Thomas, ed. (2013). Adair on Leadership. London: Thorogood.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External